Class 
Book: 




K4Vi 



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Kentucky Eloquence 

PAST AND PRESENT 

Library of Orations, After- 
Dinner Speeches, Populeir 
and Classic Lectures 
Addresses and Poetry :: :: 




Editor-in-Chief 

COL. BENNETT H. YOUNG 



Associate Elditors 



HON. HENRY WATTERSON 

HON. JAMES B McCREARY 
U. S. Senator 

HON. HENRY S. BARKER 
Judge Court of Appeals 

HON. JAMES H. MULLIGAN 
Former Senator and Consul General 

COL. REUBEN T. DURRETT 
President Filson Club 



PROF. JAMES K. PATTERSON 
President State College 
HON. JOHN MARSHALL 
Former Lieut.-Governor 
HON.W. S. COX 
Lawyer, State Senator 
REV. E. L. POWELL 

Pulpit Orator 

CAPT. W. H. POLK 

Editor and Historian 



COL. BEN LABREE. Managing Editor 



1907 



Publisher 
BEN LA BREE, JR.. Louisville, Ky. 



T6 ^^^ 



Press of the 

Geo. G. Fetter Gjmpany 

Louisville, Ky. 



FOREWORD 



4t 4i * 

With the certainty of financial loss, with sure knowledge of much 
labor, and the full expectation of some adverse criticism, the preparation 
of this book was undertaken.. The hope that, as a son of my beloved State, 
I might add one leaf to her crown of glory is ample compensation for all 
that is involved in such a task. 

Kentucky's sons and daughters have not dared, fought, struggled, toiled, 
or lived in vain. A distinctive character has been evolved ; a superb model 
of womanhood and manhood has been created, and the name "Kentuckian" 
ever carries with it, in all the known world, a peculiarly fascinating and 
unique distinction. Like the sun, it may here and there have a spot, but 
these only bring out the effulgence and splendor of the undimmed surface. 

Ignoring the unparalleled difficulties, moved by an unmeasurable 
courage, prompted by a spirit of adventure, and quickened by a love of 
conquest, the pioneer people of Kentucky marched over the Alleghany 
mountains into the wonderlands of the most attractive hunting grounds 
ever discovered by man, and planted themselves, unbidden and unwelcomed, 
amid the preserves of the savages, who, startled by this unexpected and 
daring invasion, lost no time in boldly defending this aggression, or 
punishing this defiance of their hereditary rights. 

Hitherto immigration had either crossed the ocean and, with it as a 
base, spread inland, or, by slow degrees, moved by measured tread and 
ever-expanding lines into the wilderness or pre-empted lands, forcing back 
by progressive steps all the hindrances the red man or his God might 
erect to stay its advance. 

In the settlement of Kentucky, a new law of conquest was to be 
promulgated, and new methods of subjection were to be invoked, and 
the log cabins and wooden forts of Boonesboro, Harrod's Fort, Louisville, 
Lexington, Bryant's Station, Shelbyville, Elizabethtown and Ruddle's Mill 
were to proclaim that the bravest men and women God ever made were 
to be found in the far distant wilderness, the new Commonwealth called 
"Kaintuckee." Marching, fighting, settling under new surroundings and 
in violation of all precedents, it necessarily followed that a new character 
was to be evolved. 

Providence examined its molds. No such individuality had hitherto 
appeared in the records of the past, and the hour had come when the 
world needed a new type of men. The Virginia cavalier, with his superb 
gallantry, ennobled by his lofty, gentlemanly instincts, could not meet 
the requirements. The Pennsylvania settler, with his indomitable patience 



8 FOREWORD, 

and unfailing courage, fell short of the demands, and the sturdy Scotch- 
Irishman of North Carolina, with his unquenchable love of freedom, backed 
by his superb bravery and uplifted by his abiding faith in God, was not 
equal to what the time and circumstances exacted of the men who should 
undertake the seemingly impossible task of expelling the wandering claim- 
ants of Kentucky. 

These Kentucky pioneers were to conquer a land four hundred miles 
away from help or succor. It was an untrodden forest, with no roads or 
paths except such as the buffalo in his migrations had trampled through 
the canebrake, or beasts of prey had traced in their search for food. It 
had no permanent human inhabitants, and its defense was by common 
consent imposed upon the savage red men, who claimed as their lands that 
vast country which stretches from the great lakes in the Northwest to the 
waters of the Tennessee, the Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi rivers, 
covering an area of over 300,0(X) square miles. No survey had marked 
its lines; he who traversed the solitude and depths of the forests must rely 
upon the stars, or Nature's marks upon the trees as his guide. All supplies 
must be carried on the pack-horses or by men; powder and lead were 
to be transported over six hundred miles; not a single blade of wheat or 
stalk of corn as yet had sprung from its virgin and fertile soil. He who 
entered its domain must always be prepared to meet an alert, savage, brave 
and merciless foe. The cooing of the babe, the wail of the defenseless 
women, or the appeal of the helpless prisoner, found no sympathy or 
response in the foe who defended the land. Death by the tomahawk or 
at the stake was the punishment the Indian meted out to those who 
invaded his beloved hunting ground. As he asked and expected no quarter 
for himself, he gave none to his white foe. By day and by night, -the 
merciless warfare was waged. The coming of the morning sun only 
quickened and vitalized anew his barbarous plans, and its departure at night 
only gave time for more relentless resolves to drive out the intruders. 

Here arose conditions where the great law of Nature, the "survival of 
the fittest," was to find its most difficult application and to meet its most 
perplexing trial. Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina were all laid 
under tribute and forth from these three warlike colonies came these new 
men of the hour. Between these newcomers there was no pre-arrangement. 
The sublimest courage, completest patience, almost iron hearts and iron 
bodies were needed in this new experimental station of liberty, and the 
men and women who responded to the call "over the mountains" were 
simply heaven's agents sent to win "GOD'S COUNTRY." 

Defiant of death, without fear in their hearts, they came as the best the 
new world could give for the greatest task ever imposed upon a like number 
of people. "He who, watching over Israel, slumbers not nor sleeps," chose 
his best agents for this most difficult work ; and, the story of the Kentucky 
pioneer, radiantly bright, ever' gleaming on the pages of the world's history. 



FOBEWORD. 9 

tells us that God judged wisely in the men He sent to the canebrakes and 
forests of the "dark and bloody ground" to carve out a new State, the 
characteristics of whose people were to touch and stamp a nation's life 
and to create qualities and furnish examples which, in the conquest of 
the mighty West, were to exercise an incalculable and perpetual influence. 
Such people called to such a destiny were bound to create new forms of 
speech. The extraordinary duties devolving upon these hunting-shirted 
heroes were to arouse emotions hitherto unknown and, while dealing with 
problems hitherto unsolved,- were to call for expressions, methods and 
forms of speech hitherto unspoken and yet unthought. 

Under the shade of the mighty forests, alongside streams which, in 
magnitude and currents, added a new majesty to Nature's works; down 
by the log fort, consecrated by unsurpassed danger and heroism; by the 
graves of wives and children, an account of whose tragic and awful sacrifices 
were carved with the hunting knife in the bark of the friendly monarchs 
of the wood which stood in memorial of the dust of the beloved dead, 
Kentucky Eloquence had its birth, and from these sent its echoes into other 
lands. 

Todd, Trigg, Boone, Harrod, McAfee, Blythe, Slaughter, Jouett, Hen- 
derson, Floyd were followed by a host of others like Clay, the Breckin- 
ridges, Menefee, Grundy, Daviess, Sharp, Allen, Crittenden, Combs, Shelby, 
Barry, Hardin, Bell, Magoffin, VanWinkle, Preston, Wickliffe, Hanson, 
Woolley, Letcher, Trabue, Clarke, Marshall, Robertson, Sanders, Davis, 
Wadsworth, Bright, Johnson, Blair, Corwin, Pope, Woodson and hundreds 
of others whose glowing and eloquent words have thrilled the souls of 
thousands of men and left a lasting impress upon the lives of millions of 
their fellow countrymen. No book of five hundred pages can contain a 
tithe of what these wonderful orators have said or written. 

There will be absent from the pages of this volume names and thoughts 
for which Kentuckians will naturally look in such a work. Bascom, 
Kavanaugh, Spalding, J. F. Bell, Hise, Holley, John C. Young, Smith, 
Houston and many other names will spring instinctively into the mind, 
and the query will arise. Why were they not included in its pages? The 
answer is that the indifference of friends upon whom calls were made, 
the difficulty of finding their written or printed productions and the limited 
space of one volume, all served to make it impossible to include them. 

Some will wonder why other speeches are inserted at all. Every 
prominent man in Kentucky who has won any fame as a speaker has 
been asked for a contribution, and many have declared that they were too 
busy to revise; others failed to forward manuscript, and many have 
confessed they had no record of their best efforts. 

All the money in Kentucky could not buy a page in this book; offer 
after offer of money for space has been declined. Friendship here and 
there may have left its mark and secured space for articles of moderate 



10 FOREWORD, 

merit, but dollars could not buy a single line. This is the first effort to 
put into one volume the best things spoken or written by the men of 
Kentucky. If it shall incite new love for the Commonwealth, awaken 
higher purpose or nobler ambition in the hearts of her sons, or add one 
single jewel to the crown of her manhood or womanhood, or create a 
profounder devotion for her people and their history, or arouse a deeper 
and truer pride in the achievements of her offspring, no sacrifice or labor 
bestowed upon the work will ever cause a single regret. 

Those who have been associated with me in this work have been 
generous and helpful, but upon Mr. Ben LaBree the chief labor has fallen. 
We all love Kentucky with a love that can glow in a Kentucky heart only; 
and it has been our dearest hope that these thoughts of the living and 
the dead will make those who follow better and nobler Kentuckians and 
more patriotic Americans. 

The Romans of old placed in the familiar places about their, homes 
the busts of those who had performed the greatest services to the republic, 
seeking to familiarize the young with the features and achievements of 
their national heroes. Those who have made this book seek through the 
eloquent, beautiful and well-chosen words of dead or living sons of 
Kentucky to give the grandest impulse and sublimest quickenings for the 
duties, responsibilities and obligations of those who may hereafter guide, 
govern and control the destinies of our beloved Commonwealth. 

BENNETT H. YOUNG, 

Editor-in-Chief. 

Louisville, Ky., December 15, 1906. 



CONTENTS. 



SPEECHES. ORATIONS. LECTURES. POETRY. 



PAGB 

Allen, John R. 

A Tribute to Col. W. C. P. Breckinridge 17 

Bagby, Emmett W. 

On the Death of President McKinley 23 

Bakeb, Herschel C. 

Masonry 28 

Baeby, William T. (1785-1835) 

Bank of the United States 33 

Babtholomew, William H. 

Louisville, Ky., Girls' High School 38 

Beckneb, William Mobgan 

Popular Education 41 

Big STAFF, Thomas J. 

How Far Since the Oceam Streams Have Swept Us from the Land 

of Dreams 47 

Black, James D. 

Be True to Self; Have Faith in Self; Happiness Is the Essence 
of Success 49 

Blackbubn, Joseph C. S. 

John C. Breckinridge 57 

Bbadley, William O. 

As We Are United in Life and They Are United in Death, Let One 

Monument Perpetuate Their Deeds, Etc 63 

Old Kentucky Home 423 

Bbeckinbidge, John (1760-1806) 

The Louisiana Treaty 67 

Bbeckinbidge, John C. (1821-1875) 

Removal of the United States Senate 72 

Bbeckinbidge, William C. P. (1837-1904) 

Who Were the Confederate Dead? 76 

Bbonston, Chables J. 

The Rights of the People to Vote on the Question of State Cap- 
itol Location 85 

Beowdeb, Wilbub F. 

Happy Is the Nation Whose Kings Are Philosophers and Whose 
Philosophers Are Kings 90 

Beown, John Young (1835-1904) 

Andrew Jackson — Constitutional Government and the Tariff 97 



12 CONTENTS, 

PAGE 
BXJBNAM, CUBTIS F. 

All Honor to the Laird of Skibo Castle 427 

BuBTON, Rt. Rev. Lewis William 

What the Sun Is to the Vegetable Kingdom and Through That 
Kingdom Is to Us 102 

Caeuth, Ashee Gbaham 

General Parliamentary Law 108 

Clay, Cassitjs Maecellus (1810-1903) 

The Man Died, but His Memory Lives 113 

Clay, Heney (1777-1852) 

Dictators In American Politics 117 

Clay, William Rogees 

Fifteen Minutes Outlook 122 

COCHBAN, ANDEEW M. J. 

Not to Think of Himself More Highly than He Ought to Think 126 

Cbittenden, John J. (1787-1863) 

George Washington 130 

Deabing, William Gbaham 

The True Hero 136 

Deboe, William J. 

Nicaragua Canal 139 

Duke, Basil W. 

Governor Luke Blackburn 145 

DuRelle, Geobge 

McKinley 151 

DuEEETT, Thomas Reuben 

What a Century Has Accomplished in Kentucky 153 

Eaton, Rev. Thomas T., D. D., LL. D. 

Let Your Light So Shine Before Men, that They May See Your 
Good Works, and Glorify Your Father Which Is In Heaven 160 

Embey, William Reed 

The Men Who Fought and the Women Who Waited 165 

Feost, William Goodell 

Who Is the Greatest in the College World? 171 

Gaenee, John E. 

Oh! Wad Some Power the Giftie Gie Us To See Oursel's As 

Ithers See Us 174 

Gilbebt, Geobge G. 

Answers to Criticisms on Kentucky 178 

Goebel, Whliam (1856-1900) 

The Democratic Party and Its Relation to the Trusts; The Ken- 
tucky Election Law; The School Book Trust 433 

Geassham, C. C. 

Presenting Governor Beckham ., 183 



CONTENTS. 18 

PAGE 

Guthrie, James (1792-1869) 

The Restriction of Representation of Cities,' and a Defense of the 
Louisville Legion 186 

Hageb, John F. 

Lock and Dam No. 1 191 

Habdin, Benjamin (1784-1852) 

The Wilkinson and Murdagh Case 193 

Habdin, Ben Lee 

Mother Eve ". 202 

Hablan, John Marshall 

The United States Supreme Court 205 

Hazelbigg, James Hebvy 

All Honor, Then, to the Old South! The Old Dixie! The Wartime 
Land of Cinnamon Seed and Sandy Bottom! 209 

Humphrey, Edward W. C. 

Rohert E. Lee 211 

Johnson, Richard M. (1781-1850) 

A Just Compensation to the Members of the Senate and House of 
Representatives 219 

Knott, James Proctob 

The Glories of Duluth 224 

Lindsay, William 

The Past and Future of Kentucky 231 

Mabshall, Thomas Fbancis (1801-1864) 

Life and Character of Richard H. Menefee 236 

MoCbeaby, James Bennett 

Life and Character of U. S. Senator James B: Beck 431 

MoCreery, Thomas Clay (1817-1890) 

Arlington Should Be Restored to the Lees 243 

McDermott, Edward J. 

Commercial and Political Problems from a Southern Standpoint. . 247 

McGarvey, Rev. John William 

A Neglected Witness 253 

Meacham, Charles Mayfield 

The Town and City 258 

Menefee, Richard Hickman (1809-1841) 

The Maine Boundary Question 263 

Merrill, Cassius E. 

A Medley of Memories 268 

Metcalfe, Thomas (1780-1855) 

The Confederated Republic, State Rights and Protection to Na- 
tional industries and to Occupant Farmers 274 

Miller, Reuben A. 

The Family Doctor 279 



14 CONTENTS, 

PAGE 

Miller, Richard W. (1869-1906) 

The Sun Shines Bright in the Old Kentucky Home 282 

MiLLiGAN, Alexander Reed 

Margaret McDaniel Woolley 286 

Moreiiead, James Turner (1797-1854) 

Daniel Boone 289 

Morrow, Thomas Z. 

Memorial Day 294 

Mulligan, James H. 

Nominating Hon. John G. Carlisle for the United States Senator- 
ship 301 

MULLiNS, Rev. Edgar Young, D. D., L»L. D. 

Greek and Modern Ideals in Education 305 

Owens, William C. 

Our President 313 

Perry, R. R. 

The Little Bronze Button 315 

Pope, John (1770-1845) 

The Occupation of West Florida 318 

Powell, Rev. Edward Lindsay, D. D. 

Paul Before Agrippa 323 

Powers, Joshua D. 

Patriotic Spirit of Bankers 329 

Preston, William (1806-1887) 

Rights of Suffrage to Foreigners and a Defense of the Roman 
Catholic Church 333 

Procter, Benjamin F. 

Dr. Leslie Waggener 338 

Reynolds, Dudley S. 

Growth of Medical Education 343 

Rhoads, D. Baker 

The Blue and the Gray 348 

Robinson, Rev. Stuart, D. D. (1814-1881) 

The Gospel Adapted to the Conscious Wants of the Human Soul — 
Its Arguments, Terms and Agencies 353 

Saufley, Micah Chrisman 

Battle of Perryville 362 

Sherley, Swager 

The South of To-day 368 

Smith, Zachary F. 

Mother of Henry Clay 373 



CONTENTS, 16 

PAGE 

Thum, William Waewick 

A Lawyer's Opportunity * 376 

Walsh, Thomas 

The Music of Poetry , 401 

Watterson, Henby 

Abraham Lincoln 379 

Once a Kentuckian, Always a Kentuckian 391 

Weissingeb, Habey 

Your Dead Are Ours, and Our Dead Are Yours 396 

WiCEXiFFE, Chables A. (1788-1869) 

My Political Inconsistency 402 

Yeaman, Rev. Mabion V. P. 

But the Lord Was Not in the Earthquake; and After the Earth- 
quake a Fire; and After the Fire a Still Small Voice 407 

Young, Bennett H. 

Kentuckians at the Battle of the River Raisin 411 

Tribute to Winnie Davis 419 



POEMS. 

Butleb, Genebal William Oblando (1791-1S80) 

The Boatman's Horn. 440 

Cappleman, Josie Fbazee 

Where Do the Kisses Grow? 441 

Cawein, Madison 

A Twilight Moth 443 

Cosby, Fobtunatus, Jb. (1802-1861) 

Fireside Fancies 444 

Cbockett, Ingbam 

At Yuletide 446 

Davie, Geoege M. (1848-1900) 

The City of Gold 448 

Duke, Genebal Basil W. 

Song of the Raid 450 

Duebett, Reuben Thomas 

The Old Year and the New in the Coliseum at Rome 452 

Gallagheb, William Davis (1808-1894) 

The Mothers of the West 455 

Habt, Joel T. (1810-1877) 

Invocation to the (Coliseum at Rome 456 

Hays, Will S. 

The Last Hail 45fi 



Ifi 

CONTENTS, 

Jeffeby, Rosa Vebtnee (1828-1894) ^^°* 

The Sunset City 

Miller, Elviba Sydnob 

A Dash Through the Lines 

Mulligan, James H. 

In Kentucky 

• , 4f^? 

O'Haba, Colonel Theodobe (1820-1867) 

The Bivouac of the Dead. ... 

464 

Piatt, Sallie M. B. 

My Ghost 

4fifi 

Peentice, George D. (1802-1870) 

The Closing Year 

467 

Stanton, Henby Thomas (1834-1898) 

The Moneyless Man 

459 

Welby, Amelia (1819-1852) 

The Rainbow 

470 







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JOHN R. ALLEN. 

[John R. Allen, Lawyer, Lexington, Ky., was born in Keokuk, Iowa, 
December 25, 1856, has held the following public offices: City Attorney, 
Lexington; County Attorney, Fayette county; Master Commissioner Fayette 
Circuit Court; now Commonwealth Attorney Twenty-second Kentucky 
Judicial District; Professor Constitutional Law and Law of Evidence Ken- 
tucky University Law College.! 

A TRIBUTE TO COL. W. C. P. BRECKINRIDGE 

A speech delivered at the Breckinridge memorial meeting of the Fay- 
ette county bar at Lexington, Ky., November 22, 1904. 

The most eminent member of this bar, the most gifted man whom 
1 have ever met, and one of the most brilliant in America, is dead. Either 
as a thinker, statesman, lawyer, writer or orator, he has had few equals 
in the history of our country; and as a combination of all these pro- 
fessions, he has no superior. The sum total of his mental endowments 
was m.arvelous. With a memory astonishing in its breadth, accuracy, 
depth and tenacity, he never forgot anything once acquired, and he 
absorbed everything that came within the circle of his mentality, with 
the rapidity and suction that the whirlpool draws in whatever floats in 
the current of the stream. What he read became on first reading his 
own possession; and he read deeply and widely in the history, govern- 
ment and literature of all countries, and particularly was he proficient 
and accurate in his knowledge of all the riches of wisdom and beauty in 
that wonderful compilation of Hebrew literature, the Bible. Not only 
did he gather in his mind the choicest fruits of learning and erudition, but 
'•'found tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones" 
— everything in nature and in man was a source of knowledge to him 
which he never forgot. From the vast storehouse of these mental treasures 
he could draw at will for facts or thoughts to corroborate, strengthen, 
illustrate or prove whatever position he took or theory he advocated. 
Gifted with a glowing, fervid imagination that wove into the woof of 
every thought and expression a rich and gorgeous coloring, his theme, 
whether in spoken word or written sentence, was at once always elevated 
from the realm of commonplace and became imposing and magnificent. 

But the strength of his memory, the sweep of his imagination, was 
not greater than the accuracy and good sense of his judgment, and the 
almost prophetic sureness of his foresight. Ordinarily we are not apt 
to associate power of memory and imaginative gift with depth of thought 
and logical and analytical qualities of the highest order, but in this man 
these varied qualities were united to an unusual degree, and, amid the 
flowery and brilliant word-pictures he painted could always be seen the 
substantial fabric of a close, cogent and logical argument that appeared 
to the reason as forcibly as the rich coloring and fervid eloquence did 
to the heart and imagination. 

The sweep of his mind was broad, comprehensive and philosophic; 
on every subject he thought, spoke or wrote about, his mental vision 



18 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

took in, and he found and showed its origin and history — its present 
meaning and force, and then, with the rapt eyes of the seer, he foresaw 
and proclaimed its tendency and to what it would lead in the future. So 
that whatever trifling event engaged his pen, on whatever occasion he 
spoke, whether in the halls of Congress, on the stump, at the bar, the 
banquet, funeral, school exercise or after-dinner, you could find no plati- 
tudes in his articles or speeches, but something forceful and virile, full 
of thought and philosophy. No matter when or where he gave utterance, 
no matter how many distinguished persons wrote on the same theme, 
or how many distinguished orators spoke on the same occasion, his 
speech was always the best. It stood out distinctive and different from 
the others, unique and potent in its originality. A common expression, 
which you all have heard in coming from any place where he and others 
spoke, was: "Well, old Billy laid it over all of them." With these rich 
and varied gifts, it is small wonder that as a writer he was unsurpassed. 
Perfect in composition and expression, clear and luminous in statement, 
thoughtful and philosophic in the treatment of every subject, his editorials 
were not only forcible and trenchant criticisms on current events, but 
masterpieces of English style. Composed amid the hurry and rush of a 
busy professional life, dictated at odd moments to a stenographer, or fre- 
quently written by himself on the typewriter, after a hard day's work in 
court or in his office, they have the finish of papers prepared with infinite 
care and patience, re-written and revised until perfection in diction and 
expression was attained. 

In all, one will constantly find inestimable maxims of moral and 
political wisdom; grave, dignified discussion of public questions; tremen- 
dous invectives against fraud and corruption; appeals to the heart and 
conscience of the people for a loftier civilization and higher ideals; 
magnificent outbursts of scornful indignation against those whom he 
deemed unworthy in public life, or who, in his opinion, by insidious or 
corrupt practices, were undermining our national, State, county and city 
honor. In them he constantly appealed for free and fair elections; a 
pure, undefiled ballot; for civic honesty; for a broader and more liberal 
education of the people; for unrestricted and untrammeled commerce for 
the nation; for better roads in the country; cleaner streets, better sewerage, 
public play grounds and public parks in the city — in fact, in every move- 
ment for the betterment of the people, morally or physically, for the 
beautifying or development of the county or city, his editorials were a 
potent and inspiring force. 

The vigor and brilliancy of his articles were not only recognized at 
home, but highly esteemed throughout the whole country; constantly 
quoted and frequently reproduced at length in the famous metropolitan 
papers. If he could have had charge of the editorial columns of one 
of these great journals and been free to exercise his great talents along 
these lines, what a tremendous power he would have exercised throughout 
the nation, and how soon his fame would have rivaled, if not eclipsed, that 
of Thurlow Weed, Henry J. Raymond, Horace Greeley, George D. 
Prentice or any of the great editors this country has produced. 

As a lawver, he was learned and profound, a consummate master 
of the elementary principles of the common law, and thoroughly familiar 
with the cases. As a "nisi-prius" practitioner, he had no superior in 
the State and hardly an equal. When he devoted himself, after the 
war, to the practice in this city, the bar of Lexington ranked higher and 



JOHN R. ALLEN. 19 

contained in its lists of members more men of commanding talents and 
eminent ability than any bar in the South. Truly^ ''there were giants in 
those days." What a superb galaxy of great intellects — Madison C. 
Johnson, John B. Huston, Richard A. Rucker, James O. Harrison, James 
B. Beck, Frank Hunt, the two Kinkeads, John C. Breckinridge. In this 
distinguished company he quickly and easily took and maintained a com- 
manding position. No one of them possessed a stronger intellect, more 
native resources, or a mental vision that saw quicker or more deeply into 
whatever was intricate. Notwithstanding the quickness of his intellect 
and his familiarity with legal principles and practice, he did not trust 
alone to those in the conduct of his cases, but patiently and thoroughly 
prepared himself in each one, and, when he went into trial, was armed 
cap-a-pie, both as to the law and facts. Quick, alert and resourceful, no 
matter into what aspect a case drifted during the trial, what unexpected 
phases developed, or what unfortunate turn the testimony or law took, 
he instantly adapted, with infinite skill and adroitness, his attack or 
defense to meet it. Like a cat, he would not be thrown and in every fall 
lit upon his feet ready for another conflict. He was never defeated in 
any cause until a court of last resort had finally decided against him. 
These qualities, combined with supreme tact, a winning personality and 
his magnetic eloquence and persuasiveness as an advocate, made him well 
nigh invincible in the court house. 

But it was as an orator that his gifts and superb mental endowments 
were exhibited in their full luster. In this sphere he was incomparable. 
Either in impromptu speeches or prepared addresses, his thought and 
argument were logical and convincing, his diction chaste and perfect, his 
powers of statement clear and luminous, his illustrations copious and apt 
and all adorned with a splendor of imagery, fervor of feeling, and a 
music of rhetoric that was thrilling and entrancing. With his white flowing 
locks, his bright gleaming eyes, the clear, bell-like tones of his silvern 
voice, his few, but appropriate, gestures, Breckinridge was the incarnation 
of eloquence. 

When Mr. Carlisle made his famous speech at the Opera House in 
Lexington on the money question, during the campaign of 1896, before 
a magnificent audience that crowded the house from pit to dome, for 
two solid hours he held the attention of his hearers by his forceful, 
unanswerable logic, his clear, cold analysis, the power of his statement, 
and his broad grasp of the great underlying principles of government 
and finance. At the close of his address, Colonel Breckinridge was 
called on, and, in a three-minute impromptu address of impassioned, glow- 
ing oratory, thrilled the hearts of the audience and fired it to wild pitch 
of enthusiasm. His speech in the Louisville convention, nominating his 
kinsman, Joseph Desha Pickett, for Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
was a striking illustration of the supreme power of a great orator over 
the hearts and feelings of men. As he closed, an electric thrill ran through 
the convention, men leaped to their feet, stood on the chairs, shouted and 
cried, and for ten minutes the proceedings of the convention were stayed, 
while the deafening applause of enraptured men beat the air. 

His courage was equal to his mental endowments. Whatever position 
he took or principle he believed in was advocated and contended for with 
perfect feariessness and absolute disregard for consequences. A firm 
believer in the doctrine that the Government had no constitutional power 
to levy taxes except for the purpose of raising revenue sufficient to meet 



20 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

the necessary expenditures of the country, economically administered, he 
was a stem and unyielding foe to the unjust system of taxes that imposes 
burdens upon one man for the benefit of another, and enriches the few 
at the expense of the many. Both in public life and when a private 
citizen, his voice and his pen were constantly engaged in waging the 
battle for industrial freedom. Though the hemp men of Kentucky brought 
powerful pressure upon him to get him to modify his views as to pro- 
tection so far as this staple product of the State, and particularly in this 
district, was concerned, he was unyielding and would not sacrifice his 
well-considered and matured views on the question to retain the good 
will or favor of this large and influential body of his constituency, believing 
his first duty as a national representative was to the whole country. When 
he first entered political life and was a candidate for Commonwealth's 
attorney of this district, he voluntarily and knowingly sacrificed his chance 
of securing the office by advocating boldly and with his usual vigor and 
brilliancy a change in the law so as to authorize the admission of negro 
testimony in trials by the courts of the State. 

In the unfortunate controversy that arose over the nomination by his 
party Df William Goebel as a candidate for Governor, he condemned in 
vehement and unmeasured terms the methods by which he was nominated 
and elected, which he believed to de destructive of the party, subversive 
of good government and ruinous to the State. In the campaign of 1896, 
his views on the financial question were at variance with those of his 
party, and, at the sacrifice of any future political advancement, with the 
certainty staring him in the face that his position meant for him political 
death, he fearlessly and publicly maintained his views and advocated the 
election of Palmer and Buckner, believing, as he said, that the doctrine 
advocated by our party was false and fallacious in theory, would lead 
the country to financial ruin, and that his duty to his country should be 
greater than his allegiance to his party. On every public question, after 
exhaustive research and wide reading and patient consideration, he reached 
firm conclusions and maintained and fought for them unflinchingly and 
with never-quailing courage. 

One of the most marked characteristics of Colonel Breckinridge's 
nature was his -optimism. He believed in the courage, honesty, good 
sense and virtue of the American people, in the future of his city, his 
State and his country. He was a young old man, as full of the fire 
and enthusiasm of youth as of the wisdom and conservatism of mature 
age. He put the past behind him and looked with brave and hopeful 
eyes into the future, convinced that God Almighty had mapped out in 
His divine plans a mighty and glorious destiny for this young republic, 
and confident that seeming dangers to the national life would be avoided 
by the intelligence, enlightenment and patriotism of the people, that 
darkling clouds might temporarily lose the way for the natron, but could 
not ultimately hide from it the land "flowing with milk and honey" and 
the sky of fair promises intended for it. 

He loved his city, county and State with a passionate devotion — their 
people, their history and ,R:lorious traditions which he knew so well. 
Though frequently tempted by alluring offers from other States and 
communities of eminent positions, great emoluments and wider oppor- 
tunities for wealth and fame, he put away all these as empty baubles and 
clung with ardent love and feeling to his native land. Their people were 



JOHN R. ALLEN. 21 

his people, their God his God. He would rathec be "a door-keeper in 
the house of the Lord than dwell in the tents of Kedar." 

Colonel Breckinridge's capacity for labor was prodigious. He loved 
work for work's sake, and each day he got through easily and apparently 
without any excessive tax on his physical or mental constitution, a 
quantity that would have stagered any ordinary man and soon sapped 
his vital energies. Genius has been defined to be the "capacity for taking 
infinite pains." If this be true, he certainly possessed it, for to everything 
he had in hand he gave infinite pains and care. His ability to stand long 
protracted and continuous labor was largely due to his superb constitution 
and the rugged health he enjoyed until his first breakdown only a few 
weeks since. He cared nothing for and rarely took any vacation, but 
day in and day out, in winter and summer, he cheerfully and unremittingly 
applied himself to the laborious exactions of an unusually busy professional 
career and the duties of an editor of a newspaper, besides finding time 
for reading and study, and the preparation of the numerous addresses he 
was so frequently called on to deliver. He told me on one occasion that, 
whenever it was possible, he prepared himself thoroughly for every speech 
he had to make, no matter how small the occasion — not to the extent 
always of writing out what he intended to say, but by reading, study and 
thought, and by carefully mapping out in his own mind the line of his 
argument. 

He was a kindly man, and surely in the Book of Life his name will 
stand high up in the list, for, like Abou-Ben Adhem, "he loved his fellow 
man." In the heat of legal battle and conflicts in the court room, he, like 
all lawyers, has sometimes lost his temper, and spoke harshly and in 
cutting, sarcastic terms to opposing counsel, but those occasions were 
infrequent and he v/as generally the most courteous in his treatment of 
brother lawyers and of all men. I do not mean to imply by terming him 
a kindly man that he could not or did not hate any one, for that would 
not be true. He heartily despised any man who, he considered, had done 
him a serious intentional injury or been false or treacherous to him and, 
like the Indian, he never forgot or forgave such a one. But to his friends 
he was always loving and sympathetic, and no man ever had more loyal, 
sincere or stronger friends. He was generous to lavishness, quite beyond 
the bounds of prudence, indulgent to his family and open-handed in his 
gifts to the needy. 

That he had his faults, some of them grievous, we who knew and 
loved him realized and, like Caesar, "grievously hath he answered them." 
But he also had transcendent virtues. Humanity still has its feet on the 
ground if its heart and soul do aspire to the sky. If this great man had 
passions and emotions common to humanity since "man's first disobedience 
brought death into the world and all its woes," he likewise had shining 
qualities, great thoughts, high aspirations, deep religious convictions, that 
linked him to the Divine. 

To me his death is a personal bereavement. He was one of my law 
professors when I was a student at the Law College of Kentucky Univer- 
sity, and the one who was nearest and dearest to me. He took me into 
the bosom of his family, put me on terms of intimate association with 
the charming members of his family, and gave me, I am proud to believe^ 
his confidence and affection to the day of his death. As a kindness to me, 
he gave a noble young brother-in-law of mine, who ere this has welcomed 
his benefactor on the other shore, the appointment to West Point. I 



22 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE . 

turned to him frequently and freely for advice and relied with implicit 
confidence upon the disinterestedness of his counsel and the wisdom of his 
judgment. 

To paraphrase the language of another, "I am one among the hundreds 
who loved him and stand with the thousands who lament his death. I 
loved him in the promise of his glowing manhood when across my boyish 
vision he walked with winning grace from easy effort to success. ' I loved 
him in the flush of splendid maturity when a nation hung upon his words, 
and now, with the dress of human friendship smitten in my soul, I love 
him best of all as he lies yonder under the December skies with face as 
tranquil and smile as sweet as patrial ever wore. 

"Oh, brilliant and incomparable Breckinridge! We lay for a season 
thy precious dust beneath the soil that bore and cherished thee, but we 
fling back against our brightening skies the thoughtless speech that calls 
thee dead. God reigns, and His purpose lives, and although these brave 
lips are silent here, the seeds sown in this incarnate eloquence will sprinkle 
patriots through the years to come, and perpetuate thy living in a race of 
nobler men." 



« 



EMMETT W. BAGBY. 

[Emmett W. Bagby, Lawyer, Paducah, Ky., was born in Glasgow, Ky., 
June 7, 1845; was City Attorney of Paducah for twelve years.] 

ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT McKINLEY. 

An address delivered at the Methodist Church in Paducah, Ky., on 
September 18, 1901, at the invitation of the governing body and citizens of 
Paducah. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

Being absent from the city at the time it was determined by its govern- 
ing body and the good citizens of Paducah that I address you on this 
sorrowful occasion, and having only a few hours in which to gather the 
thoughts requisite for proper discourse upon so important a subject, I 
shall undertake the sad office assigned me with many misgivings of my 
competency. Knowing the difficulty there will be in repressing my own 
emotions, I kindly beseech your pardon for any infirmity of utterance you 
may observe in the manner of my speech. 

This is one of those rare occasions when the sympathy of a nation is 
close akin to those tenderer feelings generally confined alone to private 
life. Under any circumstances, the assassination of a country's ruler is 
a mournful catastrophe, but the life and character of the beloved form 
which lies in solemn state to-day in the city of Canton are conspicuous 
for virtues which appeal so strongly to the hearts of all the people that 
the pomp and ceremony which usually attend the funeral of one so 
exalted and renowned are obscured and forgotten in the agony of deep 
distress which bows the nation's heart at this sad hour, and each feels as 
if some one of his own dear household had forever departed. 

My own feelings are so deeply affected by this overwhelming^ sorrow, 
which so grievously afflicts you all, that I must postpone to a more favor- 
able time any extended discussion of the influences which have conspired 
to produce a life so eminent in virtues which distinguished this noble repre- 
sentative of his race. His resplendent career is not a pyramid which 
narrows toward the top, but a straight shaft of solid granite that towers 
in uniform strength and beauty from base to summit. There in all its 
majestic dignity it stands, illumined in the glory reflected by the sympathy 
of a grateful people, and as if some divine architect had moulded its 
harmonious proportions, while a mourning nation, with tearful eyes, upon 
his lifeless form looks and weeps and meanwhile seeks to learn the 
secret of so grand a life, a life which is the embodiment of the self- 
reliance, courage and hope of a great nation. For never has the spirit of 
confidence so generally prevailed throughout the country as during the 
administration of President McKinley; confidence not only in the country's 
material prosperity, but in all social relations; confidence that, no matter 
what betides, a wise and faithful ruler guides safely the destiny 'of his 
peojple. What is it that has inspired this confidence more surely than 
the high moral qualities exhibited in the sterling character and conduct 
of the President? Moral qualities which will be attributed by some to 



24 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

his early religious training, by intimate friends to the sincere friendship 
for all his countrymen, but by the people at large to his truly enlightened 
judgment, his lion-hearted courage and great forbearance, while his noble 
patience and gentility will appear the most potent elements in the shaping 
of his admirable career. All of which signifies that he derived his strength 
from many sources. Could he come back now and tell us from whence 
his many manly virtues came, I doubt not he would point with loving 
pride to the teachings of her at whose side in days long gone he sat and 
listened and there obtained the inspiration which stimulated him to all 
his future greatness. 

With what commendable modesty and simplicity he has fulfilled the 
duties of the high and responsible station to which he was called! Never 
did his exalted position seem to divest him of that sense of democratic 
equality and simplicity which placed him so gracefully as a man on a level 
in common with his fellowmen. What ruler in ancient or modem iimea 
has given to the world more striking lessons of gentleness and forbearance 
in moments of great public concern? Patience under stress and storm; 
patience in the face of fierce opposition; patience with the mistakes and 
follies of ignorance; this is a virtue which comes from discipline under 
long moral culture. It is the virtue which distinguishes civilization from 
barbarism. 

There is nothing that reveals genuine character like the exercise of 
power. It is easy for the helpless and irresponsible to be gentle, and most 
persons bear adversity becomingly because they can not avoid it. But to 
ascertain the real measure of a man give him power. In every instance 
where this supreme test has been applied to the President, he has invariably 
filled every requirement. When the clamorous appeals of conflicting 
demands have invoked the application of his executive power, equanimity 
has uniformly accompanied promptness of action. Doubtless much of 
this quality in his nature was due to large toleration, inspired by his 
abundant confidence in men. This unsuspecting reliance upon those 
he was so faithfully serving made him unmindful of the common precau- 
tions required for his own protection, and in a moment when he least looked 
for any violent design upon his person, when in his simple, manly way 
he was manifesting his usual spirit of kindness, sympathy and trust toward 
the people he so fondly loved, he was basely betrayed unto his death by 
the dastardly wretch who killed him. 

In its effort to account for this foul deed, the nation stands aghast in 
its perplexity and bewildered at the consequences. The great alarm is 
that the devilish teaching which provoked this most unnatural crime may 
impress its feeble-minded dupes with the deception that such a hellish 
deed will be rewarded with celestial favor or some sort of human appro- 
bation. Within the period of one generation, three of the country's 
greatest rulers have been the victims of assassination. Within that time, 
the people have by their ballots elected seven Presidents, three of whom 
have been assassinated. One was the victim of passions influenced by 
the heat of a great national and sectional conflict, but the act of the 
assassin was deplored by men both North and South. One was destroyed 
by a man whose reason had become unbalanced by partisan zeal, impelled 
by insane greed for office. The last was killed by one whose feeble 
intelligence had been corrupted by the venemous social doctrines origin- 
ating in the scum centers of Europe. It is a murderous record the like 
of which is unsurpassed by the criminal annals of any modem State. 



EMMETT W . BAQBY . 26 

It is natural that the popular feeling should express itself with passionate 
emphasis in the determination to seek the cause of the evil and find the 
remedy for its suppression. After such a deplorable experience, it is a 
serious question whether the fundamental law of the nation, in one respect, 
is not too liberal. The Constitution of the United States provides that 
"Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech and of the 
press." And the courts, in order to shield society against the bad effects 
of a too liberal application of the declaration, have found it necessary 
to determine that in certain instances the broad privilege here granted 
may be abused. But the present temper of the American people will no 
longer leave to doubtful judicial construction the application of this liberal 
constitutional enactment, and they will immediately and vigorously demand 
such legislation as will give to the country a well-defined and clearly- 
expressed enactment, declaring that every hostile act upon the chief magis- 
trate of the nation or of any State, and every utterance counseling the 
same, be visited with the most severe penalties. "One thing we need," 
said Mr. Jeflferson, "to make us a free and prosperous people is a govern- 
ment which will restrain men from injuring one another. It is the sum 
of good government, and it is necessary to close the circle of our felicities." 
The minds of thinking men are now busy with the eifort to learn the 
cause which has impelled to this cowardly deed, and to what extent such 
a law shall be made operative in order to reach the gigantic evil which has 
so sorely afflicted the American people. 

The political conduct of the average man is largely the product of 
the prevailing opinion of the community in the locality where he resides, 
and this opinion is created and manifested through various avenues of 
expression to which the social organization gives rise, the most influential 
of which are the newspapers and the periodical press. It has been truth- 
fully said that "newspapers make and unmake men." The thoughtful 
opinion daily expressed in the columns of the press is one of the most 
powerful auxiliaries of good government. Efficient administration of 
law is largely due to the attitude of an enlightened and courageous press. 
And it is just as powerful in the procreation of social evil. The political 
evils which the public press is so well capacitated to multiply are con- 
spicuous during State and national elections, when excess of party feeling 
prompts to extreme bitterness of statement concerning the character and 
conduct of political opponents and exaggerated caricatures of opposing 
candidates, which a cooler and better estimate of the person opposed sel- 
dom justifies. Notwithstanding the evils from hasty and ill-considered 
utterances and statements in the press and from the platform, appearing 
at every recurring popular election, the fathers of the republic have deemed 
it wise to declare, through the highest expression of will and judgment, 
that the freedom of speech and of the press shall not be restrained. But 
the next national assembly should take care that exemplary penalties be 
affixed to abuses of this well-intended law and provide against a repetition 
of the deplorable spectacle over which the nation so deeply mourns at 
this sad hour. 

It is a grave mistake to suppose that one bred and bom in a foreign 
land, simply because he can read the Constitution and laws, can at once 
enter into a full realization of and sympathy with the spirit which underlies 
free institutions. Our Constitutions and laws are but formal declarations 
of ancient rules of liberty which have grown into a tradition of the race, 
which have spamg from ages of experience in the struggle for freedom, 



26 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

which have come down to us along with the Magna Charta, the Bill of 
Rights and other monumental mile-stones in the progress of a free people 
from their earliest history. Not every man is made a liberty-loving 
American citizen in the twinkling of an eye or, as it were, by any provi- 
dential interposition or dispensation. 

A man can not be made a new born citizen by any marvelous process 
of regeneration. He is not endowed by any miraculous conceptions of 
citizenship because he can read the Constitution and the laws. People 
who are free and in love with the institutions of freedom are trained 
such in the school of liberty, imbibe its precious precepts from the days 
of prattling childhood at the hands of patriotic mothers, whose spirits 
have been nurtured in a land where the very atmosphere is filled with 
the divine ozone of liberty. The principles of civil liberty which underlie 
the social institutions of the American Commonwealth have been conse- 
crated by the most memorable deeds recorded in the annals of the race. 
Deeds animated by impulses springing from an age antedating our colonial 
existence. It has been truthfully said "that the first Pilgrim who set his 
foot on Plymouth Rock stepped forth a living Constitution, armed at all 
points to defend and perpetuate the liberty to which he had devoted his 
v/hole being." We have foolishly, in our mad zeal for party success, 
abridged instead of lengthened the probationary period of residence required 
for citizenship. Our laws in this respect have been so heedlessly enacted, 
v/e have invited to our shores and thoughtlessly invested with the sacred 
rights of citizenship the red-handed Mafia of Southern Italy, the destructive 
Nihilist of Russia, the benighted Pole of Hungary and all the oflFscourings 
of Europe, which feed and fatten on the poisonous teachings of the 
most degraded communism and anarchy. We have sown the wild oats 
of our youth and from their excesses are reaping a harvest of evils. 

Every man has his political ideals, which are the result of a certain civic 
evolution or development, acquired by the slow growth of experience. 
People come here from foreign countries with a fancied sort 'of equality 
of which Americans never dreamed. Equality before the law is all that 
any sane American citizen expects; equality of condition is impossible. 
There are in this country some benevolent-minded people who would 
make all equally rich, which would be much the same thing as to make 
all equally poor. But that fatal spirit of anarchy and communism, which 
strikes with violent and frenzied force at the heads of government and 
the long-established forms of civic order, is hardly less to be deplored than 
that over-weanin,5: cupidity and selfishness of a grasping and heartless 
commercialism which stealthily undermines the perpetuity of the republic. 
Both are but diflferent phases of a common evil and each an enemy of 
good government. Genuine American citizenship is bom of elements and 
forces which have been at work on this continent for over two hundred 
years, yet, to be a good American citizen, it is not necessary that a man 
be born in this country. Many a foreign born citizen has emigrated to 
this free land that he might enjoy unmolested the privileges of a more 
enlightened liberty denied him by the institutions of his native land. 
Toward such a person the rights of American citizenship should be gener- 
ously accorded. 

From this phase of the discourse I turn again io him who is the 
moving theme of all I have to say. One of the most lamentable features 
in the tragic end of our beloved President is that he goes from us just 
at a time when he was prepared to realize the accomplishment of a policy 



E MMETT W . BAOBY . 27 

which promises so much for the prosperity of his country. One of his 
cherished projects was the isthmian connection of the two great oceans 
by way of the Nicaraguan canal, showing his cordial sympathy with 
3 great central idea which has dominated the minds of American statesmen 
of all political creeds. "The idea," in the words of an illustrious historian, 
"that upon this continent there shall exist one republic, great and indivisible, 
v/hich shall eclipse the grandeur of Rome in its brightest days, sovereign 
among the nations of the earth, so ruling in wisdom, in truth, in justice, 
yea, in force, if necessary, that every person, no matter how obscure and 
desolate he may be, shall find in it a refuge and a protector, and that 
every nation from the Atlantic ocean eastward to the Chinese seas, no 
matter how strong it may be, shall listen with attention to its suggestions." 
By this sad spectacle "another great act in the drama of American 
national life is over. Let us not look lingeringly upon the past, for the 
past never returns. With our lofty aspirations, supported by our enormous 
military, naval and industrial resources, we are warned by the words of 
the dying President, that we should turn our faces to the future. "There 
is, indeed, a manifest destiny before us. There is a course through which, 
in the severe logic of events, we must go. Let us cast from our minds the 
untrue, the unworthy belief, that the will of man determines the events 
of this worid." National life is shaped by a power far higher than that. 

"For I doubt not through the ages an increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns." 

It is said that, during the Dark Ages, there were magical mirrors upon 
which one could look and behold revealed all the future events of his 
life. In the present world-wide movements, following close upon this 
marvelous era of expansion in our national life, there is reflected in the 
enchanting mirror of the times the growing image of America's greatness. 
The great problems of government which remain unsolved crowd thick 
and fast upon us. The good and wise President who would so ably and 
lovingly have guided us by his patriotic counsels in this momentous period 
of the country's history is now one of the three immortal martyrs whose 
virtues will forever adorn the pages of American history. I look aside 
here to behold the picture only of his mortal and perishable image, and 
we pause to gave upon it lovingly once more. But I am reminded that he 
has left for us a far richer legacy in that image of his soul, which he has 
stamped in lines of imperishable memory upon the hearts of his country- 
men. It needs no achievement of photographic art to invoke the best 
beloved aspect of his dear person, nor artist to paint upon perishable 
canvas a mimicry of his breathing life, for no artist can draw a likeness 
so perfect and admirable as that which his splendid career has impressed 
upon the mental vision of the world. He has carved his own statue, he 
has built his own monument, and over his prostrate form Fame fondly 
stoops and crowns him with the wreath of imortality. 



HERSCHEL C. BAKER. 

[Herschel C. Baker, Columbia, Ky., was bom in Cumberland County, 
Ky., December 16, 1841. Graduate of Centre College, Class of 1862. Member 
of the Kentucky Legislature, 1873-74. Elected Judge of the Twenty-ninth 
Kentucky Judicial District in 1904-] 

MASONRY. 

An address delivered at the celebration of St. John's Day by Masonic 
Lodges of surrounding counties, at Russell Springs, Ky., June 23, 1904. 

The fad that the Masonic Order has existed for so long a time and 
that it exists to-day in all the civilized governments of the earth, without 
let or hindrance — that its members can be found scattered over Christen- 
dom, the inhabitants of every clime and speaking almost every known 
language — is evidence that it possesses good qualities to recommend it 
to the favorable consideration of men. Especially is this true in view 
of the fact that it has had its detractors and that at times in the past it 
has been the victim of misrepresentation and persecutions. 

Masonry can well boast of its ancient origin. Its tradition and history 
carry it back to the early age of the human race, and assign it no small 
part as a factor in the development of that civilization, so advanced and 
so enlightened which has been the wonder of modern times. 

It witnessed the rise and fall of the great empires of antiquity; it saw 
and participated in the building of their temples, palaces and cities; 
temples, palaces and cities which for long ages have been buried under 
the accumulating sands of time and some of which, their location lost, 
live only in the history of them which has been transmitted to us; it 
saw their birth, their growth, their years of prosperity, some of them 
extending over centuries; their decay and final overthrow. It was present 
at the building of the first temple in Jerusalem, and, as we may believe, 
many of its members shared the captivity in Babylon; it saw that city 
in the height of its power, with its hundred gates, its hanging gardens, 
its great reservoirs, its palaces and temples; it saw it besieged by Cyrus 
and captured on that night when Belshazzar, feasting with his impious 
lords, read the doom of his kingdom in the handwriting on the palace 
wall; it heard the glad proclamation which permitted the Jews to return 
to rebuild the city and temple of God; it saw Greece in the zenith of its 
glorious civilization, and Rome when its legions were the invincibles of 
the earth; it saw the Goths and Vandals as they came from the North, 
overturning and treading under foot that ancient civilization; it saw the 
armies of the Crusaders as they marched to Palestine, and heard the war- 
cry of Saxon and Saracen as they crossed swords and did battle under 
the gates of the holy city; it saw the darkness which settled down on 
the earth during the Middle Ages; it witnessed the revival of letters and 
the dawn of the better day, which followed that long night of ignorance, 
and, surviving all changes, it stands to-day venerable with age, yet in the 
full strength and beauty of a youthful vigor. 

In its early history Masonry was operative as distinguished from what 



HERSCHEL C . BAKER. 29 

is now known as symbolic or speculative Masonry. Its members were 
desi^ers or builders — engaged in the active, practical work of the order. 

In Palestine and Egypt and Babylon and other countries far removed 
from each other are the evidences of their skill and industry — attesting their 
power to plan and execute great works which can not be surpassed even 
in these modern days of art and civilization. 

In the temple of Baalbec are found stones more than sixty feet in 
length by nineteen broad and fourteen feet thick in the wall, twenty-five 
teet above the foundation. 

In Egypt stand the Pyramids as they stood for more than forty cen- 
turies, the wonder of the world, mute though eloquent witnesses of the 
early civilization of the human race. 

How were the great stones which compose the structure of these 
buildings cut out of the mountains? How were they transported? How 
were they chiseled to fit with such exactness? How and by what appli- 
ances were they put in position ? These are the questions often asked, but 
never satisfactorily answered. Though unanswered, the fact remains. 

Some scientists tell us that man, instead of being created in the image 
of his Maker, as Holy Writ says he was, is the lineal descendant of the 
monkey or some other lower animal. Those who can find any pleasure 
or comfort in such a relationship are at liberty to do so. We, as Masons, 
claim a higher and nobler lineage. 

We claim as progenitors and patrons of our order the men who left 
these grand memorials of their lives — incentives to all the ages which 
have followed and are to follow in the time to come. 

While no longer purely operative. Masonry is still a practical system 
and seeks to accomplish practical and positive results. Our ancient 
brethren built temples, dwellings and cities and engaged in other great 
enterprises for the material happiness and advancement of man. 

We, as Masons to-day, seek to build up the individual man as a member 
of society; to shape and form his character, as a moral, social, int-elligent 
and accountable being, owing duties to himself, to his fellowmen and 
to the God who created him. It does not claim to give him a religion, or 
a substitute for it. Let no one be deceived 'on this point. There can be 
no substitute for the religion of the Bible. While laying no claim to this, 
Masonry does claim to be a moral system, resting upon the two great 
principles or obligations of duty to God and duty to man. 

Its symbols from the lowest to the highest degree are taken from the 
Bible, and its every principle inculcates and seeks to enforce the highest 
morality. Its foundations rest upon Divine relation. Its characters are 
Bible characters, the highest types of the race of the age in which they 
lived. 

The Holy Bible is an indispensable part Df the furniture of every 
Masonic lodge, and a belief in the God of the Universe is a tenet of 
Masonic faith. The sublime teachings of the Book of Books are the rule 
and guide of Masonic faith and practice in the conduct 'of life. Recog- 
nizing the Great Ruler of the Universe who controls the destinies of 
men as well as nations, it directs us to Him in whom we can trust and 
as the One to whom we can and should go for guidance in every under- 
taking. 

The Mason who lives up to the standard of the order, who squares 
his conduct and circumscribes his passions and desires as he is enjoined 
to do must be honest in his dealings. An honest man is the noblest work 



80 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

of God. He must be prudent and temperate in his habits, loyal to his 
country, obedient to law, full of charity and good works, recognizing and 
respecting the rights of his fellowmen and ever ready to give a helping 
hand to a brother in need. If thy brother is hungry, feed him; if he is 
naked, clothe him ; if he is sick or wounded, minister to him, are Masonic 
as well as religious duties. 

it makes no effort to reform or change governments or laws. It ques- 
tions no man as to his religious or political opinions or affinities. Sec- 
tarian lines are never drawn within its temple and party discussions can 
have no place there. Theological questions are remitted to the theo- 
logians and party discussions to the politicians. When we meet around 
the Masonic altar, we meet as brethren and we meet to cultivate brotherly 
feelings. Antagonisms are laid aside and heartburnings cease, if we come 
in the spirit of our order. "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for 
brethren to dwell together in unity." 

Masonry has its secrets, its signs, pass-words and ceremonies. It has 
its tokens by which a brother can know a brother, whether he meets 
him all alone on the wide plains or upon the crowded streets of a city. 
It has a language by which a brother can make himself known to a brother 
although they belong to different nationalities and speak different lan- 
guages. But, while this is true, it has no secret or selfish end to accom- 
plish. Its principles are noble and ennobling and its purposes are as open 
as day to all the world. As to these it has no concealments. Friendship, 
lelief and brotherly love are written upon its banner. 

Under this sign it has marched in the past, and under this sign it will 
move on with the march of the ages to future conquests. Truth is its 
polar star, the goal to which and for which it ever strives — 'light, more 
light," it seeks and will seek until that millennial day when in its meridian 
splendor all darkness and error shall be forever driven from the earth. 

It recognizes that truth can never be out of harmony v/ith Nature and 
Nature's God, and that every step in light and knowledge leads us nearer 
to the highest truth; that it is eternal, as light and love are eternal, and 
that it is destined in the good time coming to prevail over all the earth. 

"Truth crushed to earth will rise again; 
The eternal years of God are hers — 
But error wounded writhes in pain, 
And dies amidst its worshipers." 

The question may be asked, What of Masonry as regards woman, 
and why is it that its doors are closed against her? I hope no woman 
entertains a feeling of unfriendliness to the order because she is not ad- 
mitted to a knowledge of its secret mysteries. I am sure that she has 
no good cause to complain of this, for if there is an organization on the 
earth which holds woman in high esteem and would protect her good 
name and honor, it is the order of Free Masons. 

In the early days of Masonry, the character of the work in which 
it engaged precluded women from membership, as it was entirely without 
their sphere. King Solomon was too wise a man, too chivalrous and 
just, to enroll them as apprentices and craftsmen and send them out to 
the snowy heights of Mount Lebanon or to the quarries of Jerusalem 
to do the work which their husbands and brothers ought to do. 

Symbolizing the work of those days, it would be inappropriate and 



HER8CH EL C . B AKER. 31 

would mar the symmetry of the Masonic system to change the ancient 
landmarks in this respect. To do so would be to falsify history. 

The name of mother, wife, sister and daughter" are sacred names to 
Masons, and have ever been so in the history of the order. 

As a Mason is a brother, his wife is a brother's wife, his sister is a 
brother's sister, his daughter is a brother's daughter, and the duty to them 
is as high and sacred as are these holy relations, and every principle of 
honor and brotherly love urge the promotion of their happiness and 
their protection from want or harm. 

"O woman in our hours of ease; 
Uncertain, coy and hard to please, 
And variable as the shade 
By the light quivering aspen made; 
When pain and anguish wring the brow, 
A ministering angel thou!" 

We know your worth and we appreciate your many virtues. We 
enshrine you in our hearts as the purest and best of all created beings. 
We may not wish to see you preside over lodges as Masons; we may 
not wish to see you contending in the political arena, or bearing musket 
or banner on the field of battle; we would not see you the hewer of 
wood and bearer of burdens, as is the case in uncivilized countries of the 
earth, but we hail you and crown you queen of home, that dearest 
spot of all the earth, and there, in an atmosphere of purity and love, 
we enthrone you, where, in the little kingdom over which you reign 
supreme, you can exercise an influence more potent for good than that 
of the soldier who commands armies, or the ruler who holds the helm 
of State. 

Masonry is not ostentatious; it does not parade itself or indulge in 
self adulation or glorification. Its alms are not given to be known of men. 
The true Mason ''hath a tear for pity and a hand open as day for melting 
charity," and the fruits of Masonry are to be found in deeds of charity 
and benevolence and brotherly love. 

We are told that kind words and kind deeds can never die; that they 
live on in a never-ending influence through all the ages. The world 
may not hear them or know of them, for they are not intended for 
the world, yet they come like the bright sunshine after the darkness of 
night, or the gentle dews of morning, to the stricken and sorrowing 
one, giving hope for despair, joy and peace for sorrow. 

The monuments of a charitable, loving life may not be as visible to 
the eye as those of marble and brass, but they are more enduring. The 
marble and brass will crumble to dust under the corroding hand of time, 
but the other will live on with a never-ending growth, widening and 
spreading as the centuries roll by. Is Masonry engaged in this good work ? 
Is it scattering the seeds of kindness along the pathway of life? It has 
been said that "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands 
mourn." If this be true, it may be said that it is the part of the work of 
Masonry to assist in undoing the wrong which the selfishness of man 
has inflicted upon his fellowmen and to mitigate the sorrow which seems 
to be a part of the inheritance of the race. 

^ We pity the unfortunate poor of every condition, but, if there be one 
object which, above all others, moves our sympathy and appeals to the 
tenderest sensibilities of the heart, it is a homeless orphan child— a child 



82 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

without the means of support; without the guardian care and love of 
parents; without the restraining and refining influence of home, out in the 
pitiless world, shifting for itself as best it can, with naked feet and bared 
head and tattered garments, facing the cold storms and fighting the cruel 
battles of life. Where will it be when the storm is over and the battle 
is ended, if left to itself? God knows; man can not tell. 

To the good name of Masonry, to the honor of the fraternity in 
Kentucky, be it said, it seeks to shield the children of its unforunate ones 
from such a fate. It has a home for its homeless widows and orphans. 
The generous and warm-hearted Masons of the State have erected in the 
city of Louisville a spacious building, surrounded by beautiful grounds, 
and dedicated it as a home for the homeless widows and orphans of its 
deceased members. The same generosity feeds and clothes and provides 
for them. Since that home was established, it has received and cared for 
8o5 widows and children. It now has 107 boys, 122 girls and 22 widows 
under its care, with 10 more voted admissions but not arrived. The 
children are educated and trained under the best moral and religious 
influences and prepared for useful stations in life, and when they arrive 
at the proper age to go out and care for themselves, the influence of 
brethren of the order secures for them homes and places where they can 
earn an honest livelihood and begin life under the most favorable circum- 
stances. Do you ask me what Masonry has done? I point you to this 
noble charity. 

A Roman matron, when asked what jewels she possessed, with 
motherly love, pointing to her children, exclaimed : "These are my 
jewels." The Masons of Kentucky, with no less pride, pointing to the 
children of their Home, who have been gathered in from the abodes of 
want and sorrow, can say, "These are our crown jewels." 

If Masonry had done and was doing nothing more than this, it would 
be enough to win the respect and gratitude of every philanthropic heart. 



WILLIAM T. BARRY. 

[William T. Barry, Jurist and United States Senator, was bom in 
Lunenburg, Va., February 5, 1785. He went to Kentucky in 1796; gradu- 
ated at William and Mary College in 1807; studied law, was admitted to 
the bar, and practiced at Lexington, Ky.; served in both branches of the 
Legislature; elected to Congress in December, 1810-11 and 1815-16; Aide 
to Governor Shelby, in the war of 1812, and was present at the battle of the 
Thames, October 5, 1813; Judge of the Kentucky Supreme Court; Lieuten- 
ant-Governor, State Secretary and Chief Justice of the State. On March 
9, 1829, he was appointed Postmaster-General by President Jackson; re- 
signed April 10, 1835, to accept the appointment of Minister to Spain, and 
died on his way to that country, in Liverpool, England, August 30, 1835. 
Buried at Frankfort, Ky., November 8, 1854.] 

BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. 

A speech delivered in the United States House of Representatives on 
Monday, January 21, 1811, on a "Bill to re-charter the Bank of the United 
States." 

Mr. Speaker: 

The measure now under consideration is certainly important. It in- 
volves principles interesting both as they relate to the general and State 
governments. The solicitude manifested for the renewal of the charter; 
the deep concern that Is felt in some of the States; the serious and solemn 
manner in which this subject has been considered and acted upon by 
their legislative councils; the general agitation it has occasioned in the 
public mind, has not failed to command my most serious attention. I 
should, nevertheless, have been content to have left it to the discussion of 
others abler and more experienced than myself, satisfied with giving such 
a vote as would comport with honest conviction of my understanding. 
But the debate has taken an unexpected course to-day. The remarks of 
my colleague (Mr. McKee) will not permit me longer to remain silent. 
As it is my lot to differ with him on this great question, I must claim 
the indulgence of the House for a few moments while I endeavor, in as 
concise a manner as possible, to state some of the reasons by which I 
am actuated. 

The baneful effects to result from the dissolution of the bank, the 
ruin that is to follow in its train, have been portrayed in the most glowing 
colors in a manner calculated, as it was no doubt designed, to awaken 
and alarm our fears. I shall not now enter upon this branch of the 
subject. 

It will be recollected that, early in the history of our Government, the 
country was divided into two great political parties, the one endeavoring 
to extend and increase the powers of the general Government, the other 
attached to the State authorities, and exceedingly jealous of their rights. 
Under this state of things, the Constitution of the United States was 
framed. Soon after the Government went into operation under it, these 
parties again displayed themselves in the rules they adopted for expound- 
ing the Constitution, the one contending for that kind of interpretation 

2 



84 ETEU'TUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

which would possess Congress with the utmost, ample powers sufficient 
to do whatever political experiment might dictate in providing for the 
common defense and general welfare. 

This latitude of construction was considered dangerous by the other 
party; that it would tend to consolidation; that in this way State rights 
would be encroached upon and their sovereignty impaired. They con- 
tended that the power of Congress was limited; that it must be confined 
to those powers expressly delegated to the "United States by the Constitu- 
tion, nor prohibited by it to the States, or reserved to the States or to 
the people;" that to step beyond the boundaries thus fixed would be to 
enter upon a field of power no longer capable of being defined. Such 
has been my understanding of the views of the two parties, the one called 
Federal, the other Republican, or Democratic, if you please. 

In the year 1791, when the bank charter was granted, we find the 
most distinguished politicians of that day, who were on the Republican 
side, opposing it; and they did it under the guidance of those sentiments 
that had originally given rise and character to the party. For, although 
they did not admit the utility of the banking system, yet the great ground 
of opposition — the strength of their argument — was directed against the 
power of Congress to pass such a law. It was, sir, upon that occasion 
that Mr. Madison, then a member of Congress, made that perspicuous and 
luminous argument that has been so justly celebrated as defining and 
marking out the proper limits of power assigned to the general Govern- 
ment. I have thought proper to make these preliminary remarks to show 
what was the understanding of this measure at the time of its adoption. 
That it was then protested against as unconstitutional. Two articles of 
the Constitution seem to be mostly relied upon by those who are in favor 
Df the renewal: That which gives to Congress the power to lay and 
collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises; to pay the debts and provide 
for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; or, 
in other words, the power by which Congress is to regulate the financial 
concerns of the nation, and that which gives the power to make all laws 
necessary and proper for carrying into execution the power vested by the 
Constitution in the Government of the United States. 

It was further contended that the true exposition of a necessary mean 
was, that mean without which the end could not be produced. If this 
doctrine is correct, it puts the question at rest, as it has been clearly shown 
that a bank is not a necessary mean according to this exposition. I shall 
not dwell longer on this head, considering it as already exhausted by argu- 
ment. The word "proper" is, in my mind, an important and an operative 
word in this clause of the Constitution. The incidental power to be 
exercised must not only be necessary, but proper; that is, it must be appro- 
priate and confined to the end in view. If it goes beyond it, if it involves 
the exercise of a power that tends to create a distinct and substantive thing, 
which, in its important operations, is entirely distinct from and inde- 
pendent of the power to the execution of which it was designed as a mean, 
it would most certainly be improper. Such an exercise of power would, 
in truth, be usurpation and the end proposed become a mere pretense for 
the unwarrantable assumption of power. 

To enable Congress to collect taxes, offices of deposits merely would 
be sufficient. But instead of confining the judicial power to be employed 
to the object it is designed to accomplish, you introduce a new system of 
policy that has no more connection with the management of the revenue 



WILLIAM T. BARRY. 86 

than it has with the power to borrow money on the credit of the United 
States, with the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations among 
the States, and with the Indian tribes, or than it has with the power to 
raise and support armies, or provide and maintain a navy. The power 
to establish a bank applies equally to an incident to all the above named 
powers and is not strictly appropriate to either, nor is it confined to all 
of them collectively. If, under such pretense, you can erect corporations, 
your power in this respect is unbounded. 

By this act you form a society of individuals, invest them with exten- 
sive and exclusive privileges, who, instead of being employed as auxiliaries 
in the fiscal arrangements of the Government, set up themselves and go on 
upon a system of making. They issue notes that become a circulating 
medium and form a new species of capital. The institution carries with 
it a train of officers, influence and patronage. It gives rise to an act 
of sovereign power that no government should ever be permitted or 
can derive by just implication — ^that of punishing those who may counter- 
feit the notes of this bank. Thus introducing into our code of laws a 
system of criminal jurisprudence never contemplated by the Constitution. 

It will be seen, as we progress in this inquiry, how this measure is 
calculated to affect the State rights and to infringe upon their sovereignty. 

If it is good policy to establish banks, and I am inclined to think it 
tends, when properly regulated, to promote the interests of society, the 
States will surely have a right to claim the benefits that may result from 
it, because this right they have never parted from. The profits arising 
from discounts, the advantage to accrue from public and private deposits, 
and the many facilities this kind of institution affords to society, belong 
to the States and ought to be exclusively under their control. The 
objects of State policy are infinitely more numerous than those of the 
general Government and deserve equally to be promoted. 

It is said that the States are at liberty, if they choose, to establish 
banks; this does not remove the objection; if the right is impaired, it is the 
same in principle as if it were denied. A branch bank of the United 
States will always have a predominant influence. They will have the 
benefit of large capital; but the great source of its influence results from 
its connections with the mother bank and a confederacy of branches co- 
extensive with the United States. They all move in concert, and, by com- 
bining their influence, would at any time be enabled to overwhelm and 
destroy the small State establishments. There can be no stronger evidence 
of the weakness and dependence of the State banks upon that of the 
United States than the alarm that some of them now feel at its expected 
dissolution. It is said that no danger of this sort is to be apprehended; 
that those who have had the direction of the United States' Bank have 
conducted it properly and with liberality. This affords no guarantee that 
they will continue to do so. Bank directors have the same passions and 
prejudices that other men have ; the same feelings of jealousy and rivalship 
exist in corporate bodies as with individuals; the same struggle for power 
and disposition to oppress. State rights require the guardianship of the 
Constitution; they are not, I trust, to be left to the mercy of a bank 
directory. 

It would, sir, be less objectionable if the Bank of the United States 
diffused its benefits equally throughout the different States. But, instead 
of this equal and just distribution, it will be found to be confined and 
partial in its operations; its benefits will be principally confined to the 



86 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

seaports; it can only be made to operate indirectly upon the agriculturist 
and manufacturer. The direction of this institution will be entirely in 
the hands of commercial men; all its powers and influence will be lent 
to them. This, combined with the power their wealth naturally gives 
them, has heretofore and will continue to give them a decided ascendency 
in the councils of this nation. It is believed that this kind of influence has 
had its effect in producing our existing embarrassments with foreign 
nations. Sir, the slightest attention to our public acts will show that there 
has been a great predilection for commerce; that it has met with almost 
exclusive protection and support, whilst little or nothing has been done 
for the internal industry -of the country; large sums of money have been 
expended for the promotion of commerce, whilst our infant manufac- 
tures have been suffered to pine and languish. The enterprise embarked 
in this way, never having experienced any kind of encouragement from 
the general Government, it is time to remove the cause that gave rise 
to this partial influence. 

The power of the States is affected by this measure in another im- 
portant respect. By its means individuals, who are mostly foreigners, 
hold large estates in stock, without being in any way subject to the State 
government or paying any tax for its support. Is it just that such ex- 
clusive privileges should be conferred? Is it proper that these men, not 
the most meritorious, should be entirely exempt from the burden of taxa- 
tion, whilst the true citizen is bound to yield his personal and pecuniary 
aid? 

Another formidable objection that presents itself is the connection 
of this institution with the Government — a dangerous source of influence 
and power. When the people have to pay taxes for the support of the 
Government, they feel and understand what is going on. If they should 
be burthened with high taxes, unless a good reason can be assigned for it, 
they will remove their agents and appoint others who will act upon a 
better system of economy. But give to the Government a bank with 
a large capital and you afford a facility of borrowing and a source of 
supplies utterly incompatible with the genius of Republican institutions. 
Loans may be had to enable the Government to pursue their projects; 
expensive establishments may be created and kept up in this way that 
the people never would have tolerated, had they been directly called on 
for their contributions. The ease it would afford of getting money would 
be the cause of repeated applications to this source; and we may readily 
perceive how a debt thus created will be constantly accumulating. Upon 
this subject we have the light of experience to guide us. The English 
nation presents a sad example. It is true the proposed capital is too small 
to create much clamor at present, but renew this charter and it will be 
augmented as convenience shall dictate. The capital of the Bank of 
England was small at its first establishment, but it increased gradually as 
the exigencies of the Government required. 

It is further contended that the law now attempted to be renewed has 
been sanctioned by the States and acquiesced in by the people. That, 
although it might not originally have been necessary, it has now become 
so. I can see strong reasons why this act granting a charter should 
not be repealed, although unconstitutional. The system had been intro- 
duced; a pledge was given to the stockholders; they invested their funds 
upon the faith of its continuance for twenty years; it was a contract for 
that period; to have violated the public faith would not perhaps have 



WILLIAM T, BARRY. Zl 

been consistent with sound policy. There is a difference between repealing 
the law and suffering it to expire. The stockholders have not even 
the color of a claim upon us for a continuance of the charter after the 
expiration of twenty years. The contract has been fulfilled and com- 
pleted. They are or should have been ready to close their business. Sir, 
if this doctrine of acquiescence is correct, many other obnoxious laws 
that have been the cause of much heat and ferment throughout the 
nation might in the same way be proven to be constitutional and might 
hereafter be received for the same reason. It is one of the first principles 
of a representative government that a subsequent Legislature have the 
power to change the measure of a preceding one; and it often is necessary 
they should do so. No State has ever sanctioned this law by a direct 
declaration to that effect. Their approbation has been inferred from their 
having passed laws to punish counterfeiters. Sir, the States can not repeal 
an act of Congress; they could not prevent the circulation of the notes 
of this bank. It was, therefore, essential to pass such laws in order to 
secure and protect their own citizens from fraud and imposition. 

It seems clear to me that an act of Congress not originally constitu- 
tional can not be made so by any lapse of time. If in 1791 it was uncon- 
stitutional, it must be so now. The Constitution does not change with 
the times. A Republican administration should not be permitted to exer- 
cise a power that they would have denied to the other party. The love of 
power is natural ; man is prone to abuse it. I confide much in those who 
are at present at the helm, but I will not trust them beyond the limits of 
the Constitution. "With unremitting vigilance, with undaunted virtue, 
should a free people watch against the encroachments of power, and 
remove every pretext for its extension." 

The evils to result from the dissolution of the bank have, in my 
opinion, been greatly exaggerated; but, sir, this alarm, if real, impresses 
my mind differently from what it does that of some others. The deep 
interest excited, the feelings that have awakened, the memorials constantly 
flowing in upon us, show the important bearing of this institution and the 
great interest it Bas already created. 

If we look forward to a period when this charter is to expire; if 
we ever intend to shake off this illegitimate offspring, now is the lucky 
moment; its embrace, though strong, is not deadly. Although some of its 
advocates threaten and endeavor to coerce us into the measure by the 
alarm they have excited, the stockholders yet approach in the respectful 
attitude of memorialists, we are yet at liberty to act freely; but, if this 
charter is renewed, depend upon it, we shall not be able to hereafter stop 
its progress. Pretenses will not be wanting to extend its limits and 
augment its capital. The poison already tasted would soon reach the 
vitals of the Government; our efforts hereafter for relief will be fruitless; 
they will only serve to irritate and inflame, until at length it will be 
found that we must tamely submit. 



WILLIAM H. BARTHOLOMEW. 

[William H. Bartholomew was born in the city of Louisville, Ky., July 
26, 1840. Educated in the public and private schools of Louisville, ex- 
President Louisville Educational Association, ex-President Kentucky Edu- 
cational Association, ex-Secretary and Treasurer of the Kentucky Educa- 
tional Association, ex-President Kentucky Council of Education, ex-Presi- 
dent Southern Educational Association, Member of the National Council of 
Education over eighteen years, Member of the State Board of Education for 
twenty years; Principal of the Louisville Girls' High School for nearly 
twenty-six years. 

LOUISVILLE, KY., GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL. 

Address delivered at the Dedicatory Exercises in the chapel of the new 
Girls' High School Building, after the keys of the building were turned 
over to him by Mr. Stephen Snodgrass, Chairman of the Building Commit- 
tee, Saturday, January 7, 1899. 

Mr. Chairman: 

By this act I beg you to believe that I am deeply sensible of the 
duties and responsibilities which it carries with it. But I am prompted 
to say that, in view of the possibilities for good wrapped up in the six 
hundred or more girls of this school, there is no reasonable sacrifice 
which I am not ready to lay upon the altar of devotion to their interests. 

Some one has said: "If you educate a boy, you educate a man, but 
if you educate a girl, you educate a family." It is the business of this 
institution to develop girls into women of pure minds, pure hearts and 
pure lives, so that they may adorn and dignify any position to which 
they may be called, two generations have been trained in this school, 
and it is now not an uncommon thing to see mother and daughter sit side 
by side in the Alumnae Club. 

It would seem superfluous in this presence to frame an argument to 
show the necessity of having in every home of our beloved country a 
queen of truly royal character to preside over and to direct its destinies.. 
"Motherhood is the oldest of all professions for women ; generally speaking, 
it is the least perfected." It may be safely said that many of the mothers 
of this city were trained here, and every day gives additional evidence of 
their unobtrusive yet faithful work in training their children in the right 
way of life. 

A mother should never encourage the malevolent feelings of her child 
against the objects of the world. But if mothers would cultivate the 
sympathetic love-natures of their children, they would be fitting men 
and women to regenerate the world, as they never can do on earth in 
any other way. 

At this time, and for many years in the past, the Girls' High School 
has furnished the greater number of faithful and conscientious teachers 
in the ward and high schools, and the faculty of this school includes in 
its list of instructors nine of its graduates. 

Graduates of this school are filling with great credit to themselves 
and their Alma Mater positions ranging from the kindergarten school to 



WILLIAM H, BARTHOLOMEW. 39 

that of the university, in every portion of the country, and not a few have 
gone to foreign fields. 

But, sir, nothing can take the place of the personality of the teacher. 
General Garfield well said: "If he was sitting on one end of a log and 
Mark Hopkins on the other, he would have a university." 

A student, speaking of the president of a college which he attended 
and whom he classed with such men as Wayland, Nott, Woolsey and Mark 
Hopkins, uses these words: 'These were men of heroic mold, raised up 
of God to lay educational foundations in a new country; men who by 
their weight and personality and power of sacrifice created an enthusiasm 
for enlightenment that has changed the face of our land. They were 
men whose character was their chief attainment, whose royal personality 
was greater than anything said or done; who, apart from buildings and 
endowment, were in themselves a university, and whose personal pressure 
on the life of youth was more than books or scrolls." 

The curriculum was, as its name implies, a race course, where all 
the runners went in and came out at the same point. But those college 
presidents molded boys into men, cared more for students than for 
studies, were more eager for character than for technical knowledge. 

The principle here disclosed is just as true to-day as it was then, and 
the teacher who desires the same results must work according to the 
same rule. His personality must be the embodiment of what he teaches 
He must be a living epistle to be read and followed. He must incarnate 
kindness, justice, generosity, truthfulness, temperance, faithfulness and 
candor in himself, so that his pupils will be inspired by his gracious and 
rounded personality in the performance of their duties, let the dangers be 
ever so multiplied and onerous. 

In fact, power is the only proper product of true teaching. Mental 
character is mental power to do mental work. Moral character is moral 
power to do moral work. The amount of moral character a man has 
is the power of resistance in the midst of temptation. 

One of England's most respected statesmen said: "We admire a 
brilliant man, but we trust a man of character." Everything must be 
looked upon in the process of education as a means to an end. The 
pupil, the one supreme object of development, must be induced to act 
for himself. The rose, the pebble, the text-book, the laboratory, the 
teacher and even life itself are only means to a great end. 

Dr. Channing thus expressed his views of the teacher's work : "There 
is no office higher than that of the teacher of youth, for there's nothing 
on earth so precious as the mind, soul and character of the child. No 
office should be regarded with greater respect. The first minds in a com- 
munity should be encouraged to assume it. Parents should do all but 
impoverish themselves to induce such to become the guardians of their 
children. They should never have the anxiety to accumulate property 
for their children, provided they can place them under influences which 
will awaken their faculties, inspire them with higher principles and fit 
them to bear a manly, useful and honorable part in the Vorld. No 
language can express the folly of that economy which, to leave a fortune 
to a child, starves his intellect and impoverishes his heart." 

It is said that when Jupiter offered the prize of immortality to him 
who was the most useful to mankind, the court of Olympus was crowded 
with competitors. The warrior boasted of his patriotism, but Jupiter 
thundered; the rich man boasted of his munificence and Jupiter showed 



40 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

him a widow's mite; the pontiff held up the keys of heaven, and Jupiter 
pushed the doors wide open; the painter boasted of his power to give 
life to inanimate canvas, and Jupiter breathed aloud in derision; the 
orator boasted of his power to sway a nation with his voice, and Jupiter 
marshaled the hosts of heaven with a nod; the poet spoke of his power 
to move the gods by praise, and Jupiter blushed; the musician claimed 
to practice the only human science that had been transported to heaven, 
but Jupiter hesitated when, seeing a venerable man looking with intense 
interest upon the group of competitors, but presenting no claim, "What 
art thou?" said the benignant monarch. "Only a spectator," said the 
gray-haired sage; "all these were once my pupils." "Crown him! Crown 
him! said Jupiter. "Crown the faithful teacher with immortality and 
make room for him at my right hand." 



WILLIAM MORGAN BECKNER. 

[William Morgan Beckner, Lawyer, Winchester, Ky., was born at 
Moorefield, Nicholas County, Kentucky, June 19, 1841. Was Police Judge, 
County Attorney, County Judge, Prison Commissioner, Railroad Commis- 
sioner, Member of the Legislature, Member of the Kentucky Constitutional 
Convention of 1890, Member of Congress, etc. Has been an agitator for 
popular education in Kentucky for more than thirty years, also agitated 
prison reform. Edited the Clark County "Democrat" for many years.] 

POPULAR EDUCATION. 

An address delivered in the Kentucky Constitutional Convention, March 
9, 1891, when the report of the Committee on Education was being consid- 
ered in Committee of the Whole. 

It were better that this convention had never met, than that it should 
leave the educational situation in Kentucky worse than it found it. Its 
earnest and patriotic efforts to secure in a higher degree to the citizens 
of the State the enjoyments of the right of life, liberty and property, and 
of pursuing happiness, will have been in vain, if we shall, in the slightest 
degree, have abridged or weakened their power to provide for the educa- 
tion of their children. Speaking in all sincerity and truth, I do not believe 
that there has ever met on the continent a body of men more anxious than 
this to do whatever will best promote the welfare, or more surely provide 
for the highest good, not only of those by whom they were sent here, 
but of posterity as well. For God's sake, do not let us make a mistake 
in dealing with the most vital question that can come before us. 

The ballot has been secured in a form that gives promise of purifying 
and correcting the evils that have grown up in connection with our 
popular elections. We have revolutionized our legislative department, 
so that it can no longer be used to promote private schemes, or to build 
up local interests, but must be the intelligent, responsible and representa- 
tive agent of the whole State in all that it does. 

We have bridled the corporations so that there need be no longer a 
dread that they will absorb all power and make the people their serfs and 
beasts of burden. 

We have regulated office-holding and its compensation, until those 
who seek high places will be animated hereafter in a higher degree by a 
laudable ambition to worthily bear their honors, rather than by a mean, 
sordid desire merely to receive the fees or salary of their positions, and 
will, at the same time, know that they are servants of the sovereign people, 
and not members of an aristocratic class whose term of service may, by 
the tricks and wiles of politics, be indefinitely prolonged. We have laid 
the foundations for a more just and uniform system of taxation; have 
secured abundant facilities for the administration of justice and, in many 
ways, have increased the efficiency of the machinery of our State govern- 
ment, whilst substantially decreasing its expense. 

If, however, after accomplishing so much good on these lines, whose 
importance I do not underestimate, we forget the children, and, in the 



42 KEN TUCET ELOQUENCE. 

slightest degree, fail to appreciate the obligations of the State to provide 
sufficient facilities for training them to be good citizens, we will deserve 
and receive in the great Hereafter anathemas and not ascriptions of 
praise, and our work, however good in other respects, ought to, and 
will undoubtedly, be condemned. I dare not doubt, Mr. Chairman, that 
those who have so nobly met the requirements of the situation in dealing 
with these subjects of minor consequence will rise to the full height of 
their responsibility before God and man when they come to consider this 
weightiest matter of the organic law. 

Instruction of the children under the auspices of the State has become 
the settled policy of our people. Andrew Carnegie, in his book on this 
country, pronounces it the most distinctively American of all our institu- 
tions and attributes to it much of the credit for our wonderful progress 
and for the astonishingly homogeneous character of our population, made 
up, as it is, of so many diverse elements. "The public school," he observes, 
"is the mill into whose hopper may be poured Germans, Irishmen, Italians, 
Englishmen, Scandinavians or the representatives of any other race, and 
yet may be relied on to turn out Americans, patriotic in purpose and 
intelligent in their devotion to our institutions." If it be true, as Buckle 
says, that "the changes in every civilized people are, in their aggregate, 
dependent solely on three things — first, on the amount of knowledge 
possessed by the ablest men; secondly, on the direction which that 
knowledge takes, that is to say, the sort of subjects to which it refers; 
thirdly, and above all, on the extent to which the knowledge is diflfused, 
and the freedom with which it pervades all classes of society" — then how 
essential to the welfare of the State it is that the facilities for acquiring 
it shall be abundant and free, and under no influence that is not in harmony 
with the highest interests of the people for whose benefit they are fur- 
nished. England learned this long ago when she established her great 
universities at which her leading classes might acquire this precious knowl- 
edge, but refused, until forced to do so by public sentiment, to provide 
for the education of her masses, who, if enlightened, might not submit 
to the burdens of an established church and a corrupt, insolent aristocracy. 
In 1839, one year after we had founded our system of common schools. 
Parliament, by a vote of 275 to 273, granted thirty thousand pounds per 
year to be used in furnishing schools for the children of the poor. "Many 
of the upper and middle classes," says McKenzie, in his interesting History 
of the Nineteenth Century, "cherished and avowed a deeply-rooted dislike 
to the education of the poor, as tending to discontent and an overthrow of 
that orderly subordination, without which society can not exist." 

"The principle was recognized as indisputable," wrote Lord Cockbum, 
"that the ignorance of the people was necessary to their obedience to law." 
This same sentiment has occasionally been expressed in America by 
ignorant wealth, which is too mean and selfish to pay the taxes needed to 
maintain the schools that furnish the intelligence by which its possessors 
are protected, or by what Locke calls "learned ignorance," which is the 
result of training in some narrow, bigoted institution, whose horizon is 
bounded by the lines of a class, or of some special interest. The State 
is bound to maintain a system of public instruction, because — 

First. The education of the young is essential to the prosperity of a 
free people and can not be left to the uncertainties of private inclination 
or ability. Intelligence opens the door to employment, is an aid to 
usefulness, must be obtained before just ambition to serve the public 



WILLIAM MORGAN B ECKN ER. 43 

should be entertained, and is the indispensable furniture of every character 
properly prepared for the struggle of life. It lessens crime and is the most 
potent preventive of pauperism. It softens and soothes the human char- 
acter and weakens the disposition, so prevalent with mankind as with 
the lower animals, to resort to brute force for the attainment of its desires. 

Second. Private schools must, from their nature, be limited in number 
and attendance, whilst the education that the country needs should be 
universal and should embrace all the children. Those who teach for gain 
must receive those who pay, and reject those who can not. The rates 
charged must have in view the necessities or condition of the teacher, and 
usually exclude those most in need of an education. 

Third. The State can not wisely leave the training of those, who are 
to be its masters, to the variable qualities of private agencies. Even knowl- 
edge may be viciously directed. It may be used to oppress, and not to 
bless. It has invented the thumb-screw, the rack and other instruments 
of torture. It has built ships and devised weapons to be used in robbing 
and destroying innocence and helplessness. It has been made the tool 
of tyranny and the aid of crime. The State can not afford to have it 
so colored that, when acquired, it will be a menace and a terror to society, 
when it can, by being properly directed, be made a blessing and a strength. 
Hence, the State is deeply interested in having supervision of the schools, 
and in seeing that they are conducted on lines that will develop patriotism, 
and give an understanding of the machinery of our Government. 

Fourth. In this country, where our institutions guarantee the same 
freedom to all, it is important that we should have a population homo- 
geneous in its feelings and desires. How can this be better secured than 
through an education of all classes in the same schools, where the rich may 
learn what the poor need, and the poor may find out how much the rich 
lack ? Such an association brings kindly feeling and sweet sympathy ; blends 
diverse elements into a harmonious citizenship and makes impossible the 
catastrophes that have destroyed governments and caused oceans of blood 
to flow in the Old World. Through the influence of the public school, 
bigotry is assuaged, sectarian bitterness is modified and political rage is 
calmed. Children that have been friends in the school room will not be 
enemies when grown; and, whatever irritations may arise in after life, 
the rich employer will not forget that the dependent laborer was his com- 
panion in more joyous days, nor will he who earns his bread by the sweat 
of his face look upon him with hate who, although more fortunate now, 
was once his loving, kindly playmate. 

Education by the State is no longer an open question. It has become 
as much a part of our institutions as is free suflfrage or representative 
government itself. I know that there are some who oppose it, but they 
dare not do so openly, and standing face to face with the people. It is 
mightier than all the politicians; it is stronger than cupidity; it is more 
powerful than selfishness; it defies bigotry; it is beyond the reach of sneer- 
ing culture or scowling ignorance. Serene and secure in the impregna- 
bility of its position, it knows that there is, with reference to it, but one 
question open for discussion. How shall it be made more valuable and 
effective ? 

We must devise ways and means for maintaining schools during a 
longer period each year, for securing better houses in which they mav be 
taught, and for paying his:her salaries to teachers. These are only questions 
of zeal and self-denial. Shall we lay up treasures for an ignorant posterity. 



44 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

or shall we have those who are to come after us so informed and educated 
that they may be better qualified than we have been to take care of 
themselves? 

Our common school system is the creature of growth from small 
beginnings. The seminaries established under the act of February 10, 1798, 
can hardly be said to have been connected with it, although, no doubt, re- 
sulting in greater enlightenment on the part of at least a few, who after- 
wards made themselves potent in the broader, wider movement. The lands 
received by the counties under that act, and the acts of December 21, 18o5, 
and January 27, 1808, were sold for a song, under the influence of that 
want of confidence in the future of our country which was not at all 
confined to that generation, but exhibits itself continuously even on this 
fioor. The next step was to set apart, by act of December 18, 1821, one- 
half of the net profits of the Bank of the Commonwealth as a Literary 
Fund, to be distributed in just proportions to the counties of the State 
for the support of a general system of education, under legislative direction. 

A commission, composed of William T. Barry, J. R. Witherspoon, D. 
R. Murray and John Pope, was appointed at the October session, 1821, 
of the General Assembly to collect information and digest a plan of schools 
for common education suited to the condition of this State and submit the 
same to the next Legislature. Most nobly did these men discharge their 
duty. The report made by them to the Senate, on the 30th day of No- 
vember, 1822, is the greatest State paper that, after much reading, I have 
yet found among the archives of Kentucky. 

Owing to the sparseness of population, the poverty of the people and 
the conditions growing out of slavery, the recommendations of Barry and 
his colleagues were not adopted. Later, the Rev. B. O. Peers, having 
been appointed a committee to investigate the same subject, made an 
enlightened and admirable report. The first great step towards a practical 
realization of the hopes of those who believed that the State should provide 
for the education of its children was the passage of the act, approved 
February 16, 1838, prepared and championed by W. F. Bullock, the jurist, 
philanthropist and patriot, now dead, but who lived to attend the semi- 
centennial of this notable event three years ago. 

The Federal Government had recently distributed among the States 
a surplus of twenty-eight millions, resulting from taxation required to dis- 
charge the indebtedness incurred on account of the war of 1812. This 
was at the time termed a "deposit," and was to be used for purposes of 
education and internal improvement. 

The act of 1837 had provided that what came to Kentucky from this 
fund — to-wit, ^850,000 — should be set apart as the nucleus of a school 
fund. The State spent all this money in carrying out its wild schemes of 
internal improvement, entered upon a few years later, but executed its 
bond therefor to the Board of Education, on which interest was paid for 
the support of the meager system of popular instruction, to whose main- 
tenance it had been dedicated. Before the Constitutional Convention of 
1849 met, there had been voted in aid of common schools by the people 
of Kentucky, under the leadership of Dr. R. J. Breckinridge, a tax of two 
cents on each $100 of taxable valuation. This was carried by an over- 
whelming majority. In the winter of 1850-1 occurred the fierce struggle 
over the proposition to destroy the bond of the State for the school fund, 
and thus get rid of this obligation, which those indifferent or hostile to 
popular education did not care longer to carry. The same great man led 



WILLIAM MORGAN BECKNER. 46 

this fight for the people and, as has occurred in every contest on such a 
question in these United States, the friends of light and knowledge 
triumphed. In the convention that framed our present Constitution, such 
men as Charles A. Wickliflfe, T. J. Hood, Larkin J. Proctor, John D. 
Taylor and Ira Root stood up bravely for common schools and secured the 
adoption of the article on education. It was a great step forward, but was 
bitterly opposed by Hardin and other leaders in that illustrious assembly. 
The same arguments were used against it that are now relied on by men 
who oppose every effort to improve the intellectual condition of the people. 

Before the war, the tax for common schools had been increased to five 
cents, and Kentucky had the proud prominence of being the only slave 
State that had an educational system which was not avowedly for the 
benefit of the few, but held out its blessings as common to all. With the 
close of the great struggle between the States, there was an increased interest 
in the cause of popular education. 

In 1869, through the wise and zealous management of Hon. Z. F. 
Smith, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, fifteen cents per annum 
on each one hundred dollars of taxable valuation was added to the resources 
of the school fund, which was subsequently increased by two cents more, 
v/hen, in the fullness of time, the people resolved to equalize the pro rata 
between the white and colored children. The system has grown and 
flourished and, although not what it should be, yet, considering the opposi- 
tion and the indifference with which it has had to struggle and the conditions 
v/ith which it has been hampered, it has reached such a degree of power 
and usefulness that no delegate can truthfully say here, as did Ben Hardin 
in the convention of 1849, that "the worst taught child in the world is he 
who is taught by a miserable country schoolmaster." Under the act of 
1883-4, which was the result of agitation and the amendments since secured, 
great improvements have been made in schoolhouses and the grades of 
teachers have been materially advanced. 

I beg the indulgence of the convention whilst I call its attention to the 
two reports with which it Has to deal. Neither has the force of being the 
expression of the views of a majority of the committee, as was stated by 
the honorable chairman when he presented the one to which his name is 
attached. As they embrace several question about which there were differ- 
ences in the committee, it is proposed to let the convention act on them 
section by section, with the understanding that each is simply an expression 
of the views of its draftsman. I do not pretend to be a whit more patriotic 
than my esteemed friend, the chairman, nor would I dare profess to have 
a kindlier or more human heart. He and I have been reared in different 
atmospheres and look at the question from different standpoints. I know 
all the woes of the masses and have, for more than twenty years, made 
a special study of the educational situation in Kentucky. The leading 
passion of my life has been to do what I could to improve the quality of 
our common schools and to bring them within the reach of all. I do not 
look on them as a charity, but as a recognition of the obligation of the 
State to educate its citizens of every class. . . . 

We lack yet that spirit of intelligent and earnest appreciation of the 
necessity for better schools, which would make us provide for local taxation, 
and, by payment of more reasonable salaries, secure higher grades of 
teachers. Great progress has been made within the past ten years, and the 
future will witness still more rapid improvement. Ben Hardin, in the last 
convention, by way of alarming the delegates with a statement of the 



46 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

vastness of the system which they would saddle on the people by adopting 
article eleven, predicted that it would take at least forty-five hundred districts 
to provide sufficient schools to reach all the children of the Commonwealth. 
We have now nearly eight thousand, and these are by no means numerous 
enough to aiford proper facilities in many regions of the State. With our 
limited vision, we can but imperfectly comprehend what will be the demands 
or development of the future. Do not let us, from any miserable consid- 
eration of a pecuniary character, refuse to posterity the fullest freedom 
with reference to this question, only providing that they shall take no 
backward step. 



THOMAS J. BIGSTAFF. 

[Thomas J. Bigstaff, Lawyer and Farmer, Mt. Sterling, Ky., was born 
in Bath County, Kentucky, December 11, 1862.] 

HOW FAR SINCE THEN THE OCEAN STREAMS HAVE SWEPT US 
FROM THE LAND OF DREAMS. 

An address delivered at the Quinquennial Banquet of Georgetown Col- 
lege, June 4, 1901. 

This beautiful quotation appears to be both subject and sentiment 
assigned to me. But how far since when.? What ocean streams? And 
what about what land, whose dreams? What does a land-lubber know 
about ocean streams ? I only know that there was a time when we dreamed 
that we were the "only pebbles on the beach." If I should tell our college 
dreams, I would be telling "tales out of school." 

I am sure that, with the "first plunge" at such a subject, like "McGinty," 
I would "go to the bottom of the sea." Besides, it is like taking a crack 
at creation, at land and sea, at facts and dreams, at time and eternity. 

To lessen my dilemma, I learn that Longfellow said this in his "Ultima 
Thule": 

With favoring winds, o'er sunlit seas. 

We sailed for the Hesperides, 
The land where golden apples grow; 

But that, ah! that was long ago. 
How far since then the ocean streams 

Have swept us from the land of dreams. 
The land of fiction and of truth. 

The lost Atlantis of our youth. 

Then my subject, I gather, is "The Dreams of Youth," and the senti- 
ment, I take it, is that "The world is like the sea," which I am expected 
to tell about in five to eight minutes, limited. 

I must say in the 'outset that the fancies of youth are as real to the 
youth as facts are to the man. It is like the old conundrum of "Which 
would you rather be, a pauper and dream twelve of twenty-four hours 
that you are a prince, or be a prince and dream a lifetime that you are a 
pauper?" 

And who can say that the love and friendship of youth is not strong 
and true and most sincere? We love to look back upon our youth and 
the pleasures that are past like a dream. And, without the dreams of 
youth, there would be no ambition, and we would not have had the courage 
to venture out upon the sea of life. And the sea, the restless sea, no fitter 
simile of life ! 

Did you ever go to the seashore and play, like children in the sand, 
and draw pictures with beautiful shells, and come within the siren spell 
of old Ocean? Do you remember the soothing and hypnotic effect of 
it all, and how the song of the sea attunes itself to every thought ? How 
you laughed at the wild struggle of the waves to reach you, but they had 



48 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

to recede, and, as you saw the whitecaps break helplessly at your feet, it 
was natural to dream that the world can not harm you. 

Such are the dreams of childhood. The youth stands upon the shores 
of Time and looks out upon the sea through the mist and sees the 
promised land, and over all the rainbow of hope. He ventures into the 
surf and dreams that in such waters that buoy him up, with his unmeasured 
strength and the young blood tingling through his veins, that he could 
battle with the waves of life unaided and alone. But woe is he if he passes 
the danger line, where the water looks most calm; there is the undertow, 
and, where he can touch bottoni, there is the quicksand. Then the sweet 
song of the siren Sea changes to the angry growl of old Ocean, and the 
waves that once kissed his hand are full of treachery to his feet and drag 
him down. Instead of pearls and treasures and golden sands, he finds the 
rock, the wreck, the skeleton. 

What is the interpretation of these dreams? That we should not 
venture upon the sea of life unprepared. What is the quickest and best way 
to get that preparation ? Get a college education. I mean academic rather 
than a professional or scientific training alone. Because at that age one 
does not know what business or profession he may choose, or what may 
choose him. So he had best be prepared for anything. The academic 
college is to landsmen what Annapolis is to seamen ; it teaches the dangerous 
depths, the rocks and reefs and shores, the kinds of craft to use and how 
to navigate with safety and success. 

I have seen it stated by Mr. Schwab, the million-dollar-a-year steel king 
(I trust that it is spelled steel) that the successful men do not come from 
our colleges. That depends more upon what he means by success. If he 
means the mere power of making money — matter not by what means — 
then the machine that grinds out money in the mint is more successful 
than even Mr. Schwab, who, from his standpoint, was fortunate enough 
to get aboard Mr. Carnegie's ship, ladened with pig iron and steel, where 
he could help himself. 

The teacher attends to the morals as well as the minds of students, 
and the latter learn that it is as morally wrong to cheat as to steal, although 
the former may be done under the forms of law. 

I do not believe that a student who has listened to the lectures of Dr. 
Dudley will be a pirate on the commercial seas. In other words, the 
college man should have his character builded as strong and firm as the 
light-house on the sea. But, after all the equipment at college, after all 
our help at home, we will shipwreck without consulting the charts and 
following the divine guidance of the One who holds the seas in the hollow 
of His hand. 

In this golden commercial age, when men are money-mad, or dying with 
the fever for gain, let us rest frorji the race for money, place and power, 
and return from the quest of the golden fleece back to our Alma Mater. 

"Ultima Thule; Utmost Isle; 
Here in thy harbors for awhile 
We lower our sails; awhile to rest 
From the unending, endless quest." 



JAMES D. BLACK. 

[James D. Black, Lawyer, Barbourville, Ky., was born on Richland 
Creek, Knox County, Kentucky, September 24, 1849; attended free schools 
and Greenville and Tusculum College, Tennessee; taught school; studied 
law, and was admitted to practice in 1874. Member of the Legislature; 
School Commissioner of Knox County; Grand Master of Masons in 1889; 
Commissioner to World's Fair, Chicago, 111., in 1893.] 

BE TRUE TO SELF.— HAVE FAITH IN SELF.— HAPPINESS IS THE 
ESSENCE OF SUCCESS. 

An address delivered at the Annual Commencement of Greenville and 
Tusculum College, Tusculum, Tenn., by invitation of the faculty and stu- 
dents, May 27, 1904. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

Somewhere I read that Bishop Wilberforce was asked if he could tell 
a plain man the plain way to heaven, and that this his answer was, "Surely, 
take to the right and go straight ahead." I confess that that simple formula 
impressed me. It has but few, if any, of the trappings or finesse with which 
some theology of which I have heard somewhat has invested the way. The 
standard of procedure it raises is apparently without adornment, yet its very 
simplicity gives it a sort of charming embellishment. 

And assuming, as you do, that heaven is the only place of satisfying 
felicity, I realize concern about it. You and I may entertain diflferent 
notions as to where heaven is, and I shall not raise that question. To do 
so would not be germane, anyhow, to what I have in mind to say to-day. 
But I am sure we are agreed in this, that he who reaches heaven achieves 
thereby the incomparable success. 

The labor-burdened, worn and tired under the weight which life's duties 
and exactions impose, and groping wearily along these rough and troublous 
ways toward the sunset of the journey, must esteem heaven the chief goal. 
And our conceptions of it easily harmonize it to the basic facts of the 
happiness we know here. To him who. is tired, heaven is a place of rest. 
To him who is racked and tortured with pain, it is a place into which pains 
do not enter. And to the one who is storm-tossed and storm-beaten, it is 
a shelter protecting him from the cold and withering blast. And so, when 
I stop to think, the rule laid down by Wilberforce has, to me, much to 
recommend it. It requires that, whatever may be the condition or circum- 
stance which besets in the fretful turmoil of this life the light which the 
right reflects, should be unceasingly and undeviatingly followed. And we 
carry with us much good reason for the belief that the rule is quite a safe 
one. For we know there is a conscience which never forgets to blandish 
and ratify with its approval the performance of duty, or to lash us with the 
memory of sin. And, if we question it, we may know, with assured 
guaranty, our latitude and longitude as we journey this land of sorrow. 
For it attends and considers every act, and pronounces its inexorable judg- 
ment thereon. Its finding:s are based upon the whole VdW and evidence, 
and its decrees are subject to no revision. Its court is the tribunal of last 



60 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

resort. And I believe there is no success here that is not the fruitage of 
that character of life and conduct whose final reward, for continued well- 
doing, is the heaven of the hereafter. That the difference between happi- 
ness in this world and happiness in the hereafter is not so much in kind 
as in degree. That truth is eternal. That no truth can be contradictory of 
any other truth, and that cause and effect are the everlasting facts in the 
administration of the world. That man, in this life, is on trial, and right 
and wrong are the factors and forces ever testing and taxing his strength. 
And I believe that for whatsoever for the right of an individual can trace to 
his hands, he shall, when called to settlement, have due credit. That the 
honest creditor of faithful memory never denies his debtor benefit of 
partial payment. 

If, then, the attainment of heaven is the acme of existence, it is so in 
the fact that all is happiness in that transcendent region. 

What, then, is success here? That is what I wish to know. And if 
we can reach an accurate answer, we may be able, by the same token, to 
determine, at least measurably, how to succeed. 

Do you seek knowledge, wealth, fame ? You do so because you fancy 
the object of the search will, when found, make you happy. In the deepest 
depths of desire, that which we call happiness is the object of the restless, 
eager chase of every mind. The soul, beleaguered here by darkness, sees 
the mirage in the distance and, with unabated effort, seeks its embrace. 

And I know there exists a notion of well-nigh universal acceptance, 
as exemplified in the eager, frenzied, grasping lust for wealth and position 
in the turbulent arena of this world, that the truly great and successful are 
those who gather gold, or rise to giddy heights out of the maelstrom of 
the politics of the State. 

And we are too often lured by the seductive witchery and charm of 
such insignia. But is he a success to whom the smell of money is so sweet, 
and its mocking leer so fascinating, that he pretends forgetfulness of the 
fraud which procured it ? And is he a success who may chance to reach, 
in the lottery of partisan politics, the highest stake at the cost of his 
integrity? Many have thus acted, courted by the sorcery that the end will 
be satisfying, even though the means employed are of doubtful character. 
But the facts have never failed to uncover and expose their delusion. They 
have found, at the end of feverish experience, that happiness is not a 
commodity of the market. That its equivalent is not in the glitter or mere 
possession of gold, or in the glamor of temporary place or power. But 
along the trail that describes the ioumeyings of the ages may be seen how 
vain has been the effort to buy contentment, and as surely as the diamond 
responds to the light, does the end reflect the character of the means. 

Then I would say, first, Be true to self. Make that the basic fact. 
Grant to the Almighty credit for being true to all always and under all 
conditions and circumstances. And we will therefore know that He, in 
His constancy to one, is unjust or faithless to none. That could not be, 
ii there existed, of necessity, conflicts between the rights of two or the 
many. For right is God's prerogative and its bounds are circumscribed by 
no geography. It is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. Its lines 
are straight and never interiink with wrong. And hence it must follow 
that no man can be right with himself and wrong with another. And, 
equally so, no individual can be true to himself and false to his rights. 
The peculiar gifts and genius of the human soul testify to these truths. 
The tenets of Nature, the throbbing pulse of the great worid about us, 



JAMES D. BLACK. 61 

teaching the lesson of live and let live, embrace and amplify them. And 
that gleam of light which, ever and anon, streams inward upon us from the 
force-depths of our existence, and which is a very pole-star among the 
attnbutes of the human mind, asserts the truth and imprints it upon the 
secret and sacred chamber of every heart. And hence it is, you may find 
the disclosures of the moral influences and affections everywhere Set 
bounds to space, and then the principle may be confined within limits 
The savage mother whose home is in the unbroken wilds about her loves 
her child with all the tender devotion of a mother heart. She thinks of 
her babe with every heart throb of her life. Its laugh is rich and sweet 
^ her ears and its health, the surest healing to her own wasting strength 
The ^ lync patter" of its feet attracts her whether in wigwam or palace' 
and its cry of pam or alarm brings to its side her ready, willing helping 
arm, whether that arm be shrouded in the richest apparel or burned bv the 
glare of the unstayed sun. -^ 

Even this old earth, rocking in its way, when touched by the returning 
springtime, starts that mysterious life-force into the roots and up into the 
gray and grizzly trunks of trees and out into every branch and fiber to 
the very tips of the tiniest twig, calls grass and flower from their winter 
hiding, and enamels mountain and valley with a profusion of life and beauty 
surpassing the cunning touches and creations of all other painters and 
creators, and which, in their gorgeous, graceful prodigality, outclass the 
dream-fabrics of the mind. And herein it gives the human heart its best 
lessons m the higher love of charity. These blessings are the instincts of 
the earth and the property of the human race. 

And then I would say, Have faith in self. For, be assured, the greatest 
achievements of this world have been won in faith. I should be an ingrate 
and coward were I, in my humble sphere, to deny faith in myself to do 
some good. It may be we have not the deft hands of some who have so 
nobly and dexterously wrought for the world's betterment, but that sig- 
nifies naught but difference in quantity, not in kind, for good. But there 
does not, after all, exist that inequality of capacity which we sometimes 
imagine. Confession of inability is often the logic for idleness, and fear of 
failure the persuasion of cowardice. We all know "Distance lends enchant- 
ment to the view," and many of us are prone to discount that in ourselves 
which we magnify and laud in others. But truth, justice, beauty and love, 
the eternals of God, are richly and copiously diffused everywhere And 
the child, if companioned with these, has, although his only shelter is the 
cabin, and his raiment rags, the possibilities of marvelous achievement. 
Have you not seen the young man or young woman struggling with pov- 
erty, grappling and fighting adverse and untoward winds, rise like a star 
above the storm? Have you not seen penury whip the disaster that would 
scourge at laudable effort? Have you not seen determined endeavor take 
the sting from poverty? 

Oh, it is indeed comforting and inspiring to see honest, persistent, faith- 
ful effort win its standing without the aid of pedigree or pocket-book And 
have you not, in the fearful nightmare of the dream of life, fancied a 
thousand foes in the mimicries you pictured in the rolling, despairing clouds 
which seemed to be settling upon you? And then have you not, as the 
lightnings cut the darkness around you, and the heartless thunders shook 
you, stopped, in an appeal to God and your better self, and discovered a 
gleam of light bursting in upon the troubled deeps of the soul, then watched 



62 KIJNTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

the angry winds meekly sink to rest, and found yourself standing on some 
crag safe above the storm-ridden and rain-drenched valley beneath ? 

When Black Hawk said, "I am a man and you are another," he touched 
the keynote of the human race. What made Abraham Lincoln great? 
Undoubtedly, his simple, undaunted, trustful faith in God and in himself. 
He kept constantly near the great and affectionate bosom of Nature, and 
confidingly drew his nourishment thence. His were those sterling, simple 
tastes and qualities which attract and delight the race. These were the 
mainsprings of his great life. 

Why the marked advancement to which the arts in Greece attained 
during the time of the Democracy? Because the genius of the age ap- 
pealed to the plain tastes and sentiment of the common mind. And why 
should the decadence follow so surely the succeeding reign of sensuality, 
and why was broken the harp that made the witchery of Grecian music? 
Because a false standard had been set up. The effort became the gratifi- 
cation of an unnatural patron, and the consequent abandonment of the 
tests and models of Nature. Nature makes no mistake. It is when men 
ignore her warnings and set up for her models their own distortions that 
mistakes occur. Who has not, when best himself, felt a mystic hand sound- 
ing at his depths to tell him the work for which he is best suited? And 
truier than is the needle to the pole, is the fact that the work that best 
suits you is that for which you are best suited. There would have been 
fewer failures, if the silent promptings from the voice of Nature had been 
heeded. The man who starts out in life seeking pleasure as an end, without 
regard to the means, is sure to drift among the breakers and be engulfed. 
The big-hearted farmer in love with his calling does not find his sweetest 
moments when looking upon his well-filled bams, but these come to him 
while the grass grows, the flowers bloom, the corn unfolds and joyous, 
bounding Nature makes merry with his intelligent toil. The physician 
whose chief desire is the collection of his fee never makes progress. But 
when, bending over the racking couch, he discovers how to disarm and undo 
the mystery of pain, his sympathetic heart finds its greatest ecstacy. The 
lawyer whose highest ambition is to win his cause, right or wrong, prosti- 
tutes a profession whose glory is the maintenance of the right. 

As sure as existence is a fact, as that life is not a myth, and as intelli- 
gence is more than a dream, every act has a consequence. Right is always 
brave, but crime is ever a coward. Justice deals in the open, but fraud 
plies its trade with stealthy mien. As the fruit is after the kind of the 
parent stock, so is evil and only evil the legitimate effect of wrong. Emer- 
son said, "Cause and effect are the two sides of every fact." What is that 
which causes the recipient of a kindness scarcely more pleasure than him 
who bestows the favor? And what is that that depresses and humiliates me 
at the remembrance of injustice or wrong to my neighbor? What did 
Whittier mean when he wrote : 

"Back to thee is a measured well 

All thou has given, 
Thy neighbor's wrong is thy present hell. 
His bliss, thy heaven." 

It is that something, a sort of wireless telegraphy, which God has thrown 
out to draw us back to him, making you and me to know that when we 
wrong another, we wrong ourselves. Teaching us the corollary that 
making another happy makes happiness for self. 



J AMES D . BLACK. 58 

Oh, the tangled lottery of life ! Bryant, at the age of nineteen, wrote 
"Thanatopsis," but Andrew Johnson at that age could not read. And yet 
the latter succeeded to the Presidency of the greatest Government of 
the world. For some great purpose it pleased the Almighty to place us 
here in a land of alternating light and darkness, of calm and storm. And 
we must take our places amid the marshalled armies. These armies are 
forces of wrestling antagonisms — ^the one to save the world, the other to 
destroy it. We can not escape the conflict they wage. But if we would 
live, we must fight. No one could long survive as a listless spectator of 
the fierce struggle about him. But the contest has its charms as well as its 
tragedies, and, happily, its triumphs as well as its defeats. We are so 
constituted that when reverse crowds upon reverse and what may seem 
our best effort appears barren of good results, hope yet urges another trial, 
and arms for another test. In such hope lies the charm of life. It is the 
bow set in the firmament, promising exemption from disaster. Like the 
subtle force which permeates the world of vegetable life, hope unfurls its 
colors and looks its bewitching glances, in the restless light above the 
landscape. It is the star that never sets, but dazzles on and on until destiny 
affixes the seal. 

"Ah well for us all some sweet hope lies 

Deeply buried from human eyes. 
But in the hereafter angels may 
Roll the stone from the grave away." 

Ours is an age of wondrous activity and development. It seems the 
hitherto locked storehouses of Nature have, in our time, opened to the 
magic touch of some wizard hand. Achievement has followed achieve- 
ment with such startling rapidity and of such surpassing moment that we 
stand in amazement at the pageant. And we have come to realize that 
that which was yesterday sublime has to-day become somewhat trivial 
in the light of a newer and yet more towering discovery. I should be a 
recreant should I fear or hesitate to take a place, humble though it be, 
among the workers of this amazing day. What should it matter that my 
place is obscure and my life so uneventful that no one shall precede to 
herald my coming, if I may yet know I have wrought well in the shop 
wherein is forged the world's redemption. Then I insist if we will paint 
a picture of life, we should look on the brightest side. We should possess 
ourselves 'of that sort of disposition which Lowell described as "sloping to 
the southern side." So that we may glean at least a modicum of the 
fragrance the flowers scatter at our feet, of the exhilaration of the calm 
sunshine and refreshing breeze and read some music in the stars. If we 
shall hear in the heavings of society sounds that remind of the groanings 
*of the tortured sea, let us betake ourselves to garden and field for a lesson. 
There we shall find the rose true to itself. The cruel storm may lash the 
earth, but the rose waits in faith for the sun, and eagerly snatches the first 
ray of light that comes its way. 

Then, with all my heart, I believe that God is good and Satan is mean. 
That the order of the One is to save to the uttermost, while the order of 
the other is to destroy irretrievably. And I believe that around the standards 
of love and hate the world's forces were early marshalled and that these 
have been ever since tugging at her destiny. Out of the one have come 
the blessings of home, of society and of State, while to the record of the 
other belong the wrecks and deviltry that have marred the ages. 



64 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

Let me remember that labor, like virtue, pays always a belter price and 
in better currency for what it wants than does idleness or vice. My progress 
may be slow and so is the growth of the oak. The palm with its single 
shaft on which rests the fronded head may have attractions, but the stalwart 
oak as it slowly rises, pushing upward its arms and downward its fangs of 
support, fights the storm and is not uprooted. 

1 believe I do no violence to the truth of history when I assert that 
the most stupendous and far-reaching event of the world since the birth 
of the Saviour was the establishment of the American Union. Before the 
advent of the steam railroad, or 'of the electric telegraph, our chart of 
liberties was framed. It was a startling departure, the beginning of a 
voyage of an unknown and untried sea. But, under its benign influences, 
the world took an upward spiral, and has kept the sail thus turned ever 
since. The elements which make the Declaration of Independence im- 
mortal were harvested, little by little, in the station houses along the way 
of the ages. Some of them were garnered at Runnymede. They were 
preserved by Him, who, on the mountain in the wilderness, wrote the 
decalogue. And, although barricaded by justice, consoled by the comforts 
of a free religion and sanctified by blood, our Government has seen the 
travail of the soul. It has paid the penalty of the failure of full agreement 
and understanding of those who made and stood by its cradle. For out 
of the varying schools of constructionists you saw come that tragic con- 
vulsion which, forty and more years ago, brought millions of your coun- 
trymen to the bloody fields of glory, putting to the test the highest type 
of that day's wonderful manhood. You saw an alien race elevated from 
the low estate of a chattel to a position among the builders of the State. 
That ordeal you passed, and to-day, looking back upon its awful picture 
of sorrow and blood, you doubt not the sincerity of the actors, whether 
garmented in blue or in gray. You are glad the Union was preserved, 
for, by that preservation, ours is the best Government within the circle 
of the sun. For it you love to live; for it you would, if need be, die. 
But there are, in my judgment, dangers still lurking about its foundations. 
To save it from these it must now, as was so ever before, look to the 
common people. Destrov the independence of the common man, and 
the fabric stands on a pillar otsand; preserve his rights and the house 
rests on a rock, and neither internal nor external storms will prevail against 
it. To my thinking, the excessive grandeur due to great wealth in the 
comparative few, the meanness of machine politics and the conflict now 
on between organized capital and organized labor constitute the present 
menace to the stability and perpetuity of our institutions. Why, the 
inordinate desire for money is so intense and absorbing that men do 
not take time to die, but just sink down anywhere when the fickle spark 
goes Dut. To some money, as money, is everything and for it and its 
getting the noblest attributes and aspirations of the human soul are often 
sacrificed. It is the same token that brought ruin to the servile herd of 
Rome. The savage Attila who had learned, in the wilds of Asia, to esteem 
the immortality 'of mind, and the rights of the commonest man to the 
equal protection of the law, demanded of the degenerate Romans to give 
up their gold and set free their slaves. 

It becomes therefore of supreme importance that the great middle class 
of our people and who, at last, make the bone and sinew of the State, 
should rise, without delay, to weed out the grafters who infest the present 
day politics. You are, no doubt, proud of your State, and justly so. I 



JAMES D. BLACK. 55 

am proud of Kentucky, proud of her glorious past, proud of her virtues, 
but ashamed of the guilt of her recent vices. But, jnay be, enough of this, 
for I might be told that these women gathered here to-day from their 
homes in this beautiful Southland beneath these lovely skies have no 
interest in politics. But I can not believe that, for their mothers had much 
to do with freedom. Did they take no stock or interest in the weal of 
the community? Are not our institutions of their handiwork? Yes, yes. 
There is not a church house or a school house in all this land whose 
building the women "did not help. They do not study statecraft as a 
profession, nor seek office for the sake of office, and yet there is not a 
humane statute in our legal literature which does not bear the finer touches 
of woman's delicate hand and purifying heart. No sword was ever drawn 
against the bulwarks of vice, or plan inaugurated for the uplift of the 
human kind that was not inspired by the aiding spirits of the women of 
the world. 

"We live in deeds, not in years, in thoughts, not in breaths; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. 
Life's but a means unto the end, that end 
Beginning, mean, and end of all things— God." 

Then I conclude that happiness is the essence of success. That it is 
the law of the mind and its seat is the human soul. 

What a miracle is man! Triune in composition. Passionate in his 
search for knowledge. In the obscure conditions about him, feeling his 
v/ay in his gropings towards the light. Fit subject for the sleepless and 
deathless solicitude of two worlds. Greater than the Cross. Worthy price 
for the spilled blood of a God. Nature is the same as when the world 
sprang from the womb of eternity. The earth, the sun and the seasons 
perform their tasks as did they when the stars first sang together. But 
man's touch has set to music the lyre of the universe. He bids unseen 
worlds stand out in the far-off azures of the sky and take their places 
within the sweep of his expanded and expanding vision. Of him and in 
him are all books and all science. In his soul religion, otherwise dead, 
finds the renewal of its life. Sprung from, and a part of, the one great 
Source of Life, he has withstood the ravages and decay of the inveterate 
ages. To him alone belong the development of learning and the bringing 
to use and account the wonders and blessings of the mysterious universe 
about him. Unique in gathering increased force and strength with every 
taxation of his power. Love, justice, mercy, memory and hope are his 
attributes. These yonder, they will not forsake him. For him a Pleader 
pleads beyond the stars. Such a being is man. I shall not berate him. In 
his alleged total depravity, I take no stock. 

"There is an eye through blackest night 
A vigil ever keeps, 
A vision of unerring light 
O'er lowly vale, o'er giddy height — 
The eye that never sleeps." 

Thirty and two years have joined the past since ended my school 
days of old Tusculum. They seem to have been borne away on wings of 
fleetest speed. And, although they have been to me years of stress and 



66 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

toil, they have been unable to tear away from memory the things that 
attend my apprenticeship here. My words are too poor to tell you how 
sincerely I have wished to again visit these scenes. And, now here, I can 
see that marvelous Nature has woven again, as of yore, the beautiful 
carpets of green on these hills and meadows. The outstretched landscape 
yet throbs with life and perfun:ie. Yonder rugged, eternal mountain still 
stands, giant-like, ready and willing, as ever, to measure arms with the 
raging storms. Over us caressingly bends the same blue sky which never 
daunts, but ever corroborates the holy aspirations of immortal mind. But 
I am deeply reminded that change has stamped its imperious impress 
around here. And it is, with some respects, with a sorrowing heart I 
stand here renewing the past. Only a few of those I left here when I went 
away are now here, and memory can but rekindle into life the viewless 
forms of the dead, renew the scenes where once they moved, and recall 
the happy, frolicsome hours of love and friendship. The history which 
those blessed old masters here wrote was not written in blood, but in 
kindly deeds, 'on the hearts and in the lives of the young men who drank 
at this fountain of learning. And you will excuse my seeming weakness 
when I say I am glad to have been spared the fate depicted in Tennyson's 
Farewell wherein he said : 

"Flow down cold rivulet to the sea. 

Thy tribute wave deliver; 
No more by thee my step shall be 

Forever and forever. 
A thousand suns will stream on thee 

A thousand moons will quiver, 
But not by thee my step shall be, 

Forever and forever." 



JOSEPH C. S. BLACKBURN. 

[Joseph Clay Styles Blackburn, Lawyer, United States Senator, Ver- 
sailles, Ky., was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, October 1, 1838; 
graduate of Centre College, Danville, Ky., 1857 (LL. D.) ; admitted to bar, 
1859; practiced in Chicago until Civil War broke out; served in the Con- 
federate Army; after war, practiced law in Kentucky; Member Kentucky 
Legislature, 1871-75; Member Congress, 1875-85; United States Senator, 
1885-97; again elected to United States Senate, January, 1901, term expiring 
in 1907.] 

JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE 

An address delivered at Lexington, Ky., November 16, 1887, at the 
unveiling of the statue of John C. Breckinridge. 

Fellow Citizens of Kentucky: 

With doubt I come to the discharge of a service that belonged to 
another. Near four hundred years ago the French knight died. When 
the life of the Chevalier Bayard went out, it was said there was none 
left among the living to pronounce his eulogy. Kentucky was more fortu- 
nate when this, her modem Bayard, died, for she then numbered among 
her living sons one thoroughly equipped and fitted for the task that has 
fallen to me. Whether as soldier, upholding upon foreign soil the flag of 
his country that he loved so faithfully and served so well, or in the council 
chambers of the republic, or in that later, darker, bloodier period of that 
country's history, the illustrious names, the towering figures of Breckinridge 
and Preston are so indissolubly linked that fame will claim them as a 
common heritage. Had Preston's honored life been spared until this hour, 
this monument would have been dedicated with an oration that would 
have endured in the memory of men as long as yonder bronze will defy the 
touch of time. 

When a great man dies, the living seek to perpetuate his memory. 
For this monuments are builded, mausoleums founded and statues erected. 
This is not done to appease the dead, nor to render their sleep more 
peaceful or profound, but rather to inspire the living to nobler and better 
lives. No monuments that we may build, no honors that we may render, 
no eulogies that we may utter, can reach into that far-off, mysterious 
realm to which the spirit of the mighty dead has gone, but the living may 
be taught by great example and ambition may be stirred in those who are 
fo follow us by study of the lives of those who were truly great. Kentucky 
has selected a model to offer to her coming generations. She, the great 
Commonwealth, comes to-day with uncovered head to consecrate a statue 
that she has builded with loving hands to the illustrious son whom "she 
wisely nursed for fame." 

John Cabell Breckinridge was born in this city on the l6th day of 
January, 1821. He came of a family that for generations had been dis- 
tinguished for illustrious services rendered to the State and country. His 
father, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, died at thirty-five, after having ranged 
himself among the leaders of his day and State. His grandfather, John 
Breckinridge, died at the early age Df forty-five, but into that short life 



68 KEl^TUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

he crowded the honors that are scarcely ever gathered in a century. As 
the law officer of the Government in the cabinet of Mr. Jeflferson, as an 
expounder of the principles of constitutional government set forth in his 
immortal resolutions of 1798, defining the limitations fixed by the Consti- 
tution upon federal power, he placed himself in front rank of American 
statesmen and became, as it were, the second father of a political system 
that stood in its grand and well-balanced proportions the wonder and glory 
of the world. His maternal grandfather, Samuel Stanhope Smith, was 
president of Princeton College and reckoned among the foremost men 
of letters of his generation, whilst his great grandfather upon his mother's 
side, John Witherspoon, a direct descendant of John Knox, was distin- 
giushed as a member of the convention of sages, statesmen, patriots and 
heroes who framed and issued to the world the immortal Declaration of 
hidependence. 

Bom of such an ancestry, bearing upon his youthful shoulders the 
lesponsibilities inseparable from such an illustrious lineage, much was ex- 
pected of the young Kentuckian when, with couched lance and visor down, 
he entered the fiercely-heated arena of political strife, destined to still 
fjercer, whiter heat, in which to prove his title to the name he bore, around 
which clustered so much of hereditary glory. But, high as was the standard 
of expectation, Breckinridge met and went far beyond its severest demands. 

Is it to be wondered a man bred like this, upon whom Nature, with 
lavish hand, had bestowed more than a liberal share of intellectual power, 
of magnetism, of eloquence and courage, should play a conspicuous part 
in the most turbulent and perilous period of his country's history? Is 
it to be wondered that he became the nucleus around which centered all 
the elements that sought to establish those principles which had been so 
stoutly asserted and steadfastly maintained by all the ancestry that lay 
behind him ? Born and reared, having lived and died among you, it is not 
needed that I should trace in detail his development from boyhood to 
manhood, nor need I deal with those years that lie behind his entrance 
into public life. 

Having been graduated at Centre College, he studied law at Princeton, 
was admitted to the bar and located in the then sparsely settled State of 
Iowa. His love for his own State predominated and he soon returned to 
this, his native place, and began, with bright promise, the practice of his 
profession. From its peaceful paths he was soon called to enter the 
military service of his country. 

As major of the Third Regiment of Kentucky Volunteers, he served 
with gallantry and distinction through the Mexican war, and was with 
that portion of the army which terminated the contest by the occupation 
of the Mexican capital. Retumin.s: to his home, he was starting anew 
upon his professional life when called upon to take his place in the arena 
of active politics. The conditions under which he made that appearance 
were peculiar, if not anamolous. Breckinridge had inherited the creed 
of Democracy. His study of our system of Government had but 
stren,s:thened and deepened his convictions of the soundness of that party's 
principles. His State, his congressional district and his native county were 
all Whig by overwhelming majorities. All had felt the influence and been 
permeated by the magnetic power of the great Whig leader. This was the 
home of the Great Commoner, then and for many years the central figure 
in American politics. 

Mr. Clay, in the ripened fullness of his great powers, stood the acknowl- 



JOSEPH C. 8. BLACKBURN. , 69 

edged leader of the Federal Senate. To attempt to wrench either county, 
district or State from the close grasp of the greart captain required the 
exercise of sublimest faith; but, defying conditions, with unfaltering faith 
in the creed that he cherished, Breckinridge entered the contest and, in 
1849, as the Democratic representative from Fayette county, appeared in 
the lower house of the Kentucky Legislature. The part that he bore in 
the legislation and debates of that body soon marked him as a man 
reserved for no ordinary destiny. In 1851, he was nominated for Congress 
in this, the Ashland district, whose loyalty to the Whig party had always 
been so constant and devoted, that it was not thought possible that it 
could be loosened from its moorings; but, through abundant caution, the 
opposition determined that Mr. Clay's own district should not be sur- 
rendered, and selected as their candidate the scarred and honored veteran 
of the War of 1812. General Leslie Combs was immensely popular — one 
of the most captivating, humorous and inimitable campaigners that ever 
appeared upon the Kentucky hustings. The campaign was active, hot and 
sharp. Breckinridge won by a majority that surprised his supporters and 
staggered his opponents. Not overestimating, but conscious of his own 
great powers, he now felt that the future was his own. He had laid 
broad and deep the foundations of his strength at home. 

The power of the Whig party was waning in Kentucky ; its organization 
had crumbled under its own ponderous blows ; its citadel had been stormed 
and carried; its mighty leader, in many respects the grandest that this 
continent has ever furnished, wasted by labors of half a century, broken 
In health and bent with age, was rapidly passing to his honored and conse- 
crated grave. Clay once gone, there would be none to take his place. His 
often-beaten but ever-faithful legions were to be left headless, as were the 
Highland hosts when Roderick's bugle was no longer heard. The future 
opened before Breckinridge the grandest vista down which mortal vision 
ever swept to scan its assured possessions. With the sacrifice of modest 
dignity, Breckinridge moved promptly to the front rank in the council 
chamber of his country and stood at last the peer of any who sat about 
him. Renominated in 1853, the Whig party made a last desperate rally 
to compass his defeat, selecting as its candidate ex-Governor Letcher, 
known as the invincible apostle of its faith when com.missioned to preach 
to the populace. The contest was even fiercer than the one preceding, but 
at its close Breckinridge emerged from the smoke and turmoil of the fray 
with a shield brighter than before, upon which was recorded another 
triumph splendidly achieved. 

Of his brilliant service for four years in the national House of Repre- 
sentatives, the imperishable records of the country furnish the best and 
most complete testimony. The Whig party in the Southern States drifted 
into what was soon known as the Knownothing organization, whilst in 
the North they affiliated with the Republican party, till then too weak to 
be considered as a rival in the great struggle for national supremacy, whilst 
many of its most devoted adherents, unwilling or unable to adapt them- 
selves to new and changed conditions, still held together and strove to 
preserve their old and honored form. 

The Democracy seemed united and solid. It looked as though it held 
an unlimited lease on Federal power. Breckinridge, with a national reputa- 
tion established, was now accepted as the ablest, most available and 
promising young leader of this vast, compact and dominant party. Here 
was threatened a break in his political career. Pressed by lack of fortune. 



60 . KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

like his predecessor, Mr. Clay, he voluntarily retired from Congress to 
devote himself to the prosecution of his profession; but the country had 
already fixed its measure upon his value as a political leader. 

In 1856, the National Democratic Convention met in Cincinnati. After 
a sharp contest between Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, and Mr. Buchanan, of 
Pennsylvania, the latter was nominated for the Presidency. This was a 
recognition of the older class of leaders who were rapidly passing away. 
Recognizing the necessity for such action, the convention turned to the 
accepted leader of the more active and younger elements of the party and 
against his urgent protest and amid scenes of the wildest enthusiasm, the 
gifted young Kentuckian was given the second place upon the ticket. His 
nomination electrified the Democracy of the country and the ticket was 
elected by an overwhelming majority. For four years he presided over 
the Senate with conspicuous ability and fairness. Evidences of discord now 
appeared in the ranks of the Democracy; Breckinridge stood without a 
rival for the Presidential nomination, except in the person of Douglas. 

The Charleston convention of i860 went to pieces without making a 
nomination, Breckinridge refusing to allow his name to go before it. 
Breckinridge received the nomination of the Baltimore convention, repre- 
senting one section of the party; Douglas became the candidate of the 
other. The organization was hopelessly divided and defeat was inevitable. 
Breckinridge received seventy-two electoral votes, Douglas twelve, demon- 
strating the former's strong hold upon his party. In 1859, Breckinridge 
had been elected to the United States Senate for six years, beginning March 
4, 1861, to succeed the Hon. John J. Crittenden. He had scarcely passed 
the constitutional age, when he became a member of the Kentucky Legisla- 
ture. At thirty-five, he was elected to the second highest office in the gift 
of the American people; while at forty, he was Senator-elect from Kent- 
tucky and the candidate of the majority wing of his party for the Presidency 
of the United States. This record stands without a parallel in American 
history. 

On the fourth of March, 1861, Mr. Lincoln was elected President. 
Fanatics in the North, elated over the first triumphs of a sectional issue, 
were deaf to every suggestion of a peaceful solution of the situation, whilst 
Southern leaders, taking hasty counsel of the chagrin brought by defeat, 
pushed the dread issue to a precipitate decision. Passion had thrust reason 
from her throne. State after State had seceded from the Union. War, 
with all its attendant horrors, confronted us. 

The United States Senate was convened in extraordinary session in 
March, 1861. Breckinridge then assumed for the first time his great and 
grave responsibilities of a senator. His position was trying in the extreme. 
With his inherited principles and well-matured convictions, he could hold 
no sympathy with the policy adopted by the Federal administration. He 
did not believe the power existed in the Federal Government to coerce a 
sovereign State by force of arms. He did believe that the essential 
and fundamental principles of States' rights and local self-government were 
being ruthlessly violated and the constitutional limitations upon the Federal 
power were being trampled under foot. He knew that his heart and 
the hearts of his people were with the South and yet he loved the Union 
with an unfaltering and a deathless devotion. Holding to the right of 
secession, he did not regard it as a wise or prudent remedy for existing 
conditions. Never were patriotism, conscience and courage subjected to 
severer test. His love for and devotion to the union of States still burned 



JOSEPH 0. S. BLACKBURN. 61 

as brightly as when he painted it in his own matchless eloquence in his 
memoVable eulogy upon Mr. Clay and his never-fo-be-forgotten oration 
upon the removal of the Senate from the old to the new chamber. 

In further proof of my assertion as to the persistence of the great 
Kentuckian's patriotism, I give the following extract from a speech de- 
livered in the Senate after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, March 20, 1861 : 
"I inherited, and all my life have cherished, a habitual and cordial attach- 
ment to my constitutional Union and now would be willing any day to 
die for it. But while I believe that, administered according to the true 
principles of the Constitution, it is the best Government on earth, I also 
believe that, administered without the lines of the Constitution, by the 
simple power of a sectional majority, it becomes the worst on earth; and 
for myself, neither in public nor private life, will I consent to sacrifice the 
principles of constitutional, of municipal, liberty, and of State equality, 
to the naked idea of Federal unity." 

War had come. The Southern senators had gone. Deserted and 
abandoned, solitary and alone, treading in the footsteps of the immortal 
Clay, pleading for a rational adjustment and honorable peace, he will pass 
into history all the grander because he stood alone. 

Suspected and mistrusted upon his entrance into the Senate, he patiently 
braved and bore it all. The battle of Manassas was fought, a beaten and 
broken army sought refuge in the capital, but this triumph of the South 
extorted no exultation from the grave and anxious senator. His allegiance 
was still due to the Government he was seeking to serve. His eflforts 
were futile; his mission was ended. Amid the ruin that surrounded, in 
the sam.e chamber over which he had so long presided, sadly surveying 
the wreck had come both to the Union and himself, he sat like Caius 
Marius amid the ruins of Carthage. All was lost but honor. 

None who knew him doubted the decision he would make. Faithfully 
and fearlessly he had striven to avert war and save the union of the 
States. Nothing remained but to take his place where conscience pointed 
and meet the inevitable v/ith lofty courage. On the 8th of October, 1861, 
he published from Bov/ling Green to the people of Kentucky an address 
to the people of Kentuck}^, returned to them the great trust they had given, 
resigned his seat in the Senate, drew that sword that was never sheathed 
until the last army had melted from the earth and the flag that he followed 
had gone down at last j-mid tears of blood. 

The fields of Shiloh, Stone River, Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, Chica- 
mauga. Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Monocacy, New Market, Cold 
Harbor and Saltville bear ample testimony to his great ability as a com- 
mander. After his transfer from the Western Army to Virginia, he came 
under the eye of the great commander. Lee here had the opportunity of 
measuring the man ; so had the authorities at Richmond. As the result, he 
was called to the head of the War Department. It was too late. The 
resources of the Government were exhausted, the Confederacy was already 
tottering to its fall; its doom was sealed, its hour about to strike. His last 
official act was an attempt to negotiate a peace, securing terms that were 
alike liberal to the vanquished and creditable to the victor. The eruptions 
of that war period had flung into the Federal Senate a member who 
offered a resolution, which the Senate in its mad frenzy adopted, declaring 
that Breckinridge, the traitor, be expelled from that chamber. No trial 
was had, no confession received, no testimony taken. 

Here to-day in the presence of the world, in the sight of Almighty God, 



62 KEJITVCKY ELOQUENCE. 

Kentucky files her imperishable answer to that libel. States do not build 
monuments to traitors. Breckinridge had already, by hi? own act, ceased 
to be a senator. 

Who will paint his emotions as he stood upon the shore, looking out 
upon the sea in search of a sail that would carry him he knew not whither? 
His hopes were blighted, his ambitions were buried, his career was ended, 
his work done and his life lay behind him. In an open boat he crossed 
to the Cuban shore. He remained abroad until bitterness and passion had 
subsided to permit him to return to spend what little of life was left him 
and to die among those who loved him so fondly, but destined to wear into 
Ijis grave the clanking shackles that a narrow, unwise and unmanly policy 
had riveted upon his limbs. He never asked and never received the right 
of citizenship. He came back with the consent of the Government to live 
and die an exile in the home of his fathers, to obey the laws that had 
been made and to respect the authorities that had been established. Faith- 
fully he observed the Constitution. Never obtruding himself upon public 
notice, taking no part in the controversies pending, in the quiet of home 
and friendship's circles, he patiently awaited the end that was so near. On 
the 17th day of May, 1875, the irrevocable mandate came. Conscious to 
the last, fully advised of the inevitable, calm and unmoved, he faced for 
the last time the grim destroyer that he had so often confronted on the field 
of battle. 

It is not to the soldier, but to the honored son, that Kentucky dedicates 
this statue. In the Legislature that decreed him this honor there were 
true and manly men, united, who held no sympathy with his views and 
bitterly opposed the cause for which he fought. Despite political differ- 
ences, they united in doing honor to the memory of one who stood the 
embodiment of our civilization, representing all that was chivalrous, manly 
and true. Remembering this, I would not stir the bitterness and passions 
of the past. The war lies behind us. Would to God it had carried with it 
its own sad, bitter memories. A majority of those who witnessed its 
coming are no longer on earth. Most of its great chieftains have crossed 
the shadowy line. Grant and Lee, Johnston and Thomas, Jackson, 
MacPherson, Breckinridge and others have long since met upon the other 
side, we hope, in fraternity and eternal good will. 

A country united not only in name, but in purpose, in hope and in 
destiny, will cherish the memory of all its worthy sons and teach posterity 
to hold it as a precious legacy. May the youth of our State and country 
learn from a study of his life, whom to-day we honor, the lofty patriotism, 
the dignity, the fidelity and courage that constitute the worthy citizen. 

Recalling the past and measuring her responsibilities to the future, in 
the presence of her sons and daughters, in the sight of Omnipotent God, 
Kentucky dedicates this monument to her broad-brained, great-hearted 
idol son. Orator, statesman, soldier, patriot, to thy immortal name and 
to thy deathless fame, Kentucky consecrates this statue and tenders it to 
posterity as proof of the love she bore thee. 



WILLIAM O. BRADLEY. 

[William O'Connell Bradley, Louisville, Ky., Governor of Kentucky, 
1895-99; born in Garrard County, Kentucky, March 18, 1847; admitted to 
bar in 1865; in 1870 elected Prosecuting Attorney; in 1872, Presidential 
Elector and candidate for Congress, and again candidate for Congress, 1876, 
Republican ticket, defeated; Delegate-at-Large Republican National Conven* 
tion, 1880, 1884, 1888, 1892, 1900, 1904. In 1888, received 106 votes for Vice- 
President in Republican National Convention; four times nominated for 
United States Senator; appointed Minister to C'orea in 1889 and declined; 
first and only Republican Governor of Kentucky, 1895.] 

''AS WE ARE UNITED IN LIFE AND THEY ARE UNITED IN DEATH, 
LET ONE MONUMENT PERPETUATE THEIR DEEDS, AND ONE 
PEOPLE, FORGETFUL OF ALL ASPERITIES, FOREVER HOLD 
IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE ALL THE GLORIES OF THAT 
TERRIBLE CONFLICT WHICH MADE ALL MEN FREE AND 
RETAINED EVERY STAR ON THE NATION'S FLAG."— FROM 
GOVERNOR BRADLEY'S MESSAGE, 1898. 

An address delivered at the Dedication of Kentucky's Monument to the 
Union and Confederate dead, on the Chicamauga battlefield, Georgia, May 
3, 1899. 

The State of Kentucky thanks you, and each member of the commis- 
sion, for the promptness, economy, efficiency and ability with which you 
and they have discharged every duty connected with this good work. 

Standing within the shadow of Missionary Ridge, whose crest and sides 
but little more than a third of a century ago were lighted with glistening 
bayonets and the fire which flashed from musketry and cannon; of 
Lookout Mountain, where contending armies mingled the colors of their 
uniforms with those of the clouds that hung about them; surrounded by 
hills and valleys, across which swept armed legions to victory or defeat; 
within sight of the spots hallowed by the blood of Croxton and Helm — 
a rush of glorious memories comes over us, causing each heart to throb 
more rapidly and each bosom to expand with patriotic emotion. Here and 
there are beautiful monuments erected by the various States in honor of 
their gallant sons and to-day Kentucky comes, with gentle and loving 
hand, to unveil a tribute to her noble brave, placing upon the graves of 
the dead a wreath of immortelles, and crowning alike with laurels the 
brows of all who survived that terrible conflict. 

Every land has its traditions, poetry and song. In each some monu- 
ment which, with mute eloquence, proclaims, "Stop, traveler, thou treadest 
on a hero." History, indeed, is but the epitome of patriotism, and the 
whole earth its monument. 

But to be enabled, as our people, to point to numerous battlefields, 
where opposing armies of embittered enemies met in the shock of battle, 
which startled the world, and, in a third of a century thereafter, to behold 
the remnants of those armies and their descendants congregating upon 
this historic spot in one common brotherhood, under one flag, each striving 
to do it most honor, is without a parallel in the annals of time, and its 



64 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

like will never be seen again. This is the grandest of all monuments. A 
monument composed of love of country and complete reconciliation, whose 
base is as broad as our national domain and from whose summit angels of 
love and peace soar heavenward with each rising sun. 

Many monuments have been erected upon battlefields of this republic, 
but it has remained for Kentucky to be the first of all the States, with 
tender and motherly devotion, to erect a blended monument to all her 
sons, a monument that carries with it and upon it complete reconciliation 
of all contending passions. 

This shaft is dedicated, not alone to those who died on this and sur- 
rounding fields, but to the gallant survivors who, when the frowning clouds 
of war were dispelled by the bright sunshine of peace, retumed to their 
homes to repair broken fortunes and are to-day numbered among the best 
and most distinguished citizens of the Commonwealth. 

Kentucky has evinced no partiality in this evidence of loving remem- 
brance. It carries with it no heart-burning, no jealousy, no invidious dis- 
tinction. It is not an emblem of honor to the victor and reproach to the 
vanquished, but an equal tribute to the worth of all. In future, the descend- 
ants of chivalrous Confederates may proudly gaze upon it, realizing that 
the State has honored their ancestors and that, although their cause was 
lost, their heroism is revered and their memories perpetuated. And the 
sons of the brave men who fought on the other side may look upon it 
with equal pride, feeling that it fitly commemorates the gallant deeds of 
their illustrious ancestors, who preserved the nation from destruction. May 
it endure forever, standing guard over victor and vanquished, with the 
statue that surmounts it, in one hand holding the torch of liberty shedding 
abroad its benign rays, in the other grasping the sword, emblematic of the 
strength of one people, ready and anxious at all times to uphold the 
integrity of one country, and to drive, wounded and bleeding, from its 
shores any insolent foe that shall ever dare invade them. 

The heroism of Buckner, Breckinridge, Helm, Preston and Lewis is the 
inheritance of every man who wore the blue; the gallantry of Rousseau, 
Crittenden, Whittaker, Croxton and Price, the inheritance of every man 
who wore the gray. They were all Americans, each, from his standpoint, 
contending for what he believed to be right; and now that we are one 
people in mind and heart, their common glory is our common heritage. 

The conflict of 1861 was inevitable. For years preceding that period 
we had two civilizations; one founded on the justice of slavery and the 
sovereignty of each State, espoused by a brave and impetuous people; 
the other founded on the declaration that all men were created equal, and 
the sovereignty of the nation espoused by a conservative and chivalrous 
people. For years antagonisms and bitterness increased between the sec- 
tions until the dispute, by force of circumstances, was submitted to the 
arbitrament of the sword. 

The struggle was inaugurated by the South, not so much to dissolve 
the Union— though that was its natural sequence— as to preserve property 
rights and vindicate the doctrine of State sovereignty. It was met with 
the purpose of preserving the Union, establishing the supreme power 
of the nation, even though slavery should die, and later for the direct 
purpose of making all men free. 

The statesmen of that day compare favorably with those of any period 
of the nation's history. The soldiers were as superb as any who ever 
darkened the sun with their banners or shook the earth with their martial 



WILLIAM 0. BRADLEY. 65 

tread. Grant and Lee, Johnson and Sherman, Sheridan and Jackson, Long- 
street and Thomas, rank with the great captains of ancient or modem 
times. Battles were fought which, in point of fatality and numbers engaged, 
surpassed all which preceded or followed them. 

And now, after the mists of prejudice have been torn from our eyes, 
and we are enabled to see the bright stars of truth and reason which shine 
beyond, all can plainly divine the sentiments which inspired the actors in 
that bloody drama. That the Union should have been preserved and 
slavery abolished, all are ready to concede. That the victors won in honor- 
able fight, no one will dispute.. . But while this is manifest, it is equally 
true that those who were fortunately defeated were inspired by sincere 
devotion to principles conscientiously believed to be just; that they fought 
with valor, equaled alone by those who opposed them, but never sur- 
passed, and their heroic suffering and bravery entitle them to the admira- 
tion of all mankind. 

There could be no more convincing evidence of the righteous termina-' 
tion of that great struggle than the present grandeur and power of the 
republic to-day, the richest nation on earth, the workshop and granary of 
the globe. 

No sane man would revive the institution of slavery, for the heroic 
blood of our negro troops has obliterated every lingering regret of the 
master and proclaimed, in unmistakable language, that the liberty of 1899 
is better than the slavery of 1861. 

A famous poem represents an imaginary midnight review of Napoleon's 
army. The skeleton of a drummer boy arises from the grave and, with 
bony fingers, beats a long, loud reveille. At the sound the legions of the 
dead emperor come from their graves from every quarter where they 
fell. From Paris, from Toulon, from Rivoli, from Lodi, from Hohen- 
linden, from Wagram, from Austerlitz, from the cloud-capped summits 
of the Alps, from the shadows of the pyramids, from the snows of Moscow, 
from Waterioo, they gather in one vast array, with Ney, McDonald, 
Masenna, Duroc, Kleber, Murat, Soult and other marshals in command. 
Forming, they silently pass in melancholy procession before the emperor, 
and are dispersed with France as the password and St. Helena as the 
challenge. 

Imagine the resurrection of the two great armies of the Civil War. We 
see them arising from Gettysburg, from the Wilderness, from Shiloh, from 
Missionary Ridge, from Stone River, from Chicamauga — yea, from an 
hundred fields — and passing, with their great commanders, in review before 
Gur martyred president. In their faces there is no disappointment, no sor- 
row, no anguish, but they beam with light and hope and joy. With them 
there is no St. Helena, no exile, and they are dispersed with Union as 
the challenge and Reconciliation as the password. 

The monument dedicated to-day may, in the rush of years, crumble 
and fall into dust, but around the summits of Lookout and Missionary 
Ridge, like gathering mists, shall remain forever the memories of these 
historic fields, and in every heart shall be a monument of love and strength 
and patriotism which will perpetuate through all coming time the glories 
of that great conflict. 

Looking into the future, may not the fond hope be indulged that in 
the end our country may, in all things, be deliberate, just and wise; that 
our flag may wave in triumph, feared by tyrants, in every land and on 
every sea; that beneath its folds shall gather the oppressed of every clime, 



66. KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

and the slave, struggling beneath the rod of oppression, feel his chains 
grow lighter, his heart leap with joy, and hail its colors as a deliverance; 
that nations which liave been bitten by the serpent of rapacity and conquest 
shall look upon its folds and be healed, as those who, with faith, looked 
upon the brazen serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness. God grant 
that ours shall be the victory of enlightenment and liberty, the triumph 
of right over might, of justice over injustice, of humanity over cruelty 
and oppression, until empires shall have passed away and the nations of 
earth become one. 

And now, sir, after thanking you for your uniform kindness and 
courtesy, I deliver into your worthy hands, as president of the Chicamauga 
Park Commission (with the full assurance that it will be properly cared 
for) , this heartfelt tribute of Kentucky to her valiant sons. 



JOHN BRECKINRIDGE. 

[John Breckinridge, United States Senator, was born in Augusta 
County, Virginia, December 2, 1760; died in Lexington, Ky., December 14, 
1806. Educated at William and Mary College, Virginia; at the age of nine- 
teen Member of Virginia House of Delegates; studied law and admitted 
to the bar in 1785, and practiced .at Charlottesville; elected to the Third 
Congress, but did not take his seat; removed to Lexington, Ky., in Decem- 
ber, 1793, and opened law office; appointed Attorney-General of Kentucky 
December 19, 1795; Member of Kentucky Legislature, 1797, and served as 
Speaker in 1800; framed the famous Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and they 
were carried through Legislature by only one dissenting vote on November 
10, 1798; served' in the United States Senate from December 7, 1801 till 
December 25, 1805; appointed Attorney-General under Thomas Jefferson, 
December 25, 1805.] 

THE LOUISIANA TREATY. 

Speech delivered in the United States Senate, October 29, 1803, In 
favor of "An act to enable the President of the United States to take i)0s- 
session of the territories ceded by France to the United States by the 
treaty concluded at Paris on the 30th of April last, and for the temporary 
government thereof." 

Mr. President: 

No gentleman has yet ventured to deny that it is incumbent on the 
United States to secure to the citizens of the Western waters the uninter- 
rupted use of the Mississippi. Under this impression of duty, what has 
been the conduct of the general Government, and particularly of the 
gentlemen now in the opposition, for the last eight months? When the 
right of deposit was violated by a Spanish officer without authority from 
his government, these gentlemen considered our national honor so deeply 
implicated and the rights of the Western people so wantonly violated, 
that no atonement or redress was admissible, except through the medium 
of the bayonet. Negotiation was scouted at. It was deemed pusillanimous 
and was said to exhibit a want of fellow feeling for the Western people, 
and a disregard to their essential rights. Fortunately for their country, 
the counsel of these gentlemen was rejected and their war measures nega- 
tived. The so much scouted process of negotiation was, however, per- 
sisted in and, instead of restoring the right of deposit and securing more 
eflfectually for the future our right to navigate the Mississippi, the Missis-- 
sippi itself was acquired and everything which appertained to it. I did 
suppose that those gentlemen, who at the last session so strongly urged 
war measures for the attainment of this object, upon an avowal that it 
was too important to trust to the tardy and less effectual process of nego- 
tiation, would have stood foremost in carrying the treaty into effect, and 
that the peaceful mode by which it was acquired would not lessen with them 
the importance of the acquisition. But it seems to me, sir, that the opinions 
of a certain portion of the United States with respect to this ill-fated 
Mississippi have varied according to the fashions. But I trust these 
opinions, schemes and projects will forever be silenced and crushed by the 
vote which we are this evening about to pass. 



68 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

Unfortunately for the gentlemen, no two of them can agree on the 
same set of objections; and, what is more unfortunate, I believe there is 
no two of them concurring in any one objection. In only one thing they 
seem to agree, and that is vote against the bill. An honorable gentleman 
from Delaware (Mr. White) considered the price to be enormous. An 
honorable gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Tracy), who has just sat 
down, says he has no objection whatever to the price; it is, he supposes, 
not too much. An honorable gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Pick- 
ering) says that France acquired no title from Spain, and therefore our title 
is bad. The same gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Tracy) says he has 
no objection to the title of France; he thinks it is a good one. The gentleman 
from Massachusetts (Mr. Pickering) contends that the United States can not, 
under the Constitution, acquire foreign territory. The gentleman from 
Connecticut is of a different opinion and has no doubt that the United 
States can acquire and hold foreign territory, but that Congress alone have 
the power of incorporating that territory into the Union. Of what weight, 
therefore, ought al their lesser objections be entitled to, when they are at 
war amongst themselves on the greater one ? 

As to the enormity of price, I would ask that gentleman would his 
mode of acquiring it through fifty thousand men has cost nothing? Is 
he so confident of this as to be able to pronounce positively that the price 
is enormous? Does he make no calculation on the hazard attending this 
conflict? Is he sure the God of Battles has enlisted on his side? Were 
France and Spain, under the auspices of Bonaparte, contemptible adver- 
saries? Good as the cause was and great as my confidence is in the 
courage of my countrymen, sure I am that I shall never regret, as the 
gentleman seems to do, that the experiment was not made. I am not in 
the habit, Mr. President, on this floor, of panegyrizing those who adminis- 
ter the Government of this country. Their good works are their panegy- 
rists, and of these my fellow citizens are as competent to judge as I am; 
but if my opinion were of any consequence, I should be free to declare 
that this transaction, from its commencement to its close, not only as to 
the mode in which it was pursued, but as to the object achieved, is one of 
the most splendid which the annals of any nation can produce. To acquire 
an empire of perhaps half the extent of the one we possessed, from the 
most powerful and warlike nation on earth, without bloodshed, without 
the oppression of a single individual, without the least embarrassing the 
ordinary operations of your finances, and all this through the peaceful forms 
of negotiation, and in despite, too, of the opposition of a considerable por- 
tion of the community, is an achievement of which the archives of the 
predecessors, at least, of those now in office, can not furnish a parallel. 

The same gentleman has told us that this acquisition will, from its 
extent, soon prove destructive to the Confederacy. This is an old and 
hackneyed doctrine ; that a republic ought not to be too extensive. But the 
gentleman has assumed two facts and then reasoned from them. First, 
that the extent is too great; and, secondly, that the country will soon be 
populated. I would ask, sir. What is his standard extent of a republic? 
Mow does he come at that standard ? Our boundary is already extensive. 
Would this standard extent be violated by including the island of Orieans 
and the Floridas? I presume not, as all parties seem to think their acqui- 
sition, in part or in whole, essential. Why not, then, acquire territory on 
the west as well as on the east side of the Mississippi? Is the Goddess 
of Liberty restrained by the water course? Is she governed by geograph- 



JOHN BRECKINRIDGE. 69 

ical limits? Is her dominion on the continent confined to the east side 
of the Mississippi? So far from believing in the doctrine that a republic 
ought to be confined within narrow limits, I believe, on the contrary, that 
the more extensive its dominion, the more safe and more durable it will be. 
In proportion to the number of hands you intrust the precious blessings 
of free government to, in the same proportion do you multiply the 
chances for their preservation. I entertain, therefore, no fears for the Con- 
federacy on account of its extent. The American people know too well 
the art of governing and being governed to become the victims of party 
factions or domestic tyranny. They not only understand the true theory 
of a free government, but as well understand a much rarer thing, the 
true art of practicing it. Had a great nation beyond the Atlantic, so often 
alluded to by some gentlemen on the floor, understood the practice but 
half as well as she did the theory, a very different result would have 
been produced by her revolution. I believe, sir, there are a set of general 
causes which operate in every Government and either exalt and support 
it, or involve it in ruin. If any particular cause has destroyed the Govern- 
ment of a country, some general cause has existed and produced the 
ruin. Whenever that general cause shall exist, it matters little whether 
the extent of the republic be great or small, for its destmction is equally 
inevitable. But nothing so remote is more clear to me than this acquisition 
will tend to strengthen the Confederacy. It is evident, as this country 
has passed out of the hands of Spain, that, whether it remained with France 
or should be acquired by England, its population would have been at- 
tempted. Such is the policy of all nations but Spain. From whence 
would that population come ? Certainly not from Europe. It would come 
almost exclusively from the United States. The question, then, would 
simply be, "Is the Confederacy more in danger from Louisiana, when 
colonized by the American people under American jurisdiction, than when 
populated by Americans under the control of some foreign, powerful and 
rival nation?" Or, in other words, whether it would be safer for the 
United States to populate this country when and how she pleased, or 
permit some foreign nation to do it at her expense ? 

Is it said that there is something mysterious in the very face of the 
treaty, for no consideration is stated to be given for the territory. The 
gentleman has certainly not examined these instruments with attention, 
and I shall merely refer him to the ninth article of the treaty. That 
article expressly refers to the conventions and declares them to be a part 
of it. Those conventions, which are to be ratified jointly and at the same 
time with the treaty, state the consideration. 

The gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Tracy) asks. If the United 
States have power to acquire and add new States to the Union, can they 
not also cede States? Can they not, for example, cede Connecticut to 
France? I answer they can not; but for none of the reasons assigned by 
him. The Government of the United States can not cede Connecticut, 
because, first, it would be annihilating part of the sovereignty of the nation 
which is whole and entire and upon which the Government of the United 
States is dependent for its existence; and, secondly, because the fourth 
section of the fourth article of the Constitution forbids it. But how does 
it follow a consequence that, because the United States can not cede an 
existing State, they can not acquire a new State? The same gentleman, 
in reply to the observations which fell from the gentleman from South 
Carolina as to the admission of States, observes that, although Congress 



70 KENTUCKY E LOQUENCE. 

may admit new States, the president and Senate who are a component 
part can not. Apply this doctrine to the case before us. How could 
Congress by any mode of legislation admit this country into the Union 
until it was acquired? And how can this acquisition be made except 
through the treaty-making power? Could the gentleman arise in his 
place and move for leave to bring in a bill for the purchase of Louisiana 
and its admission into the Union ? I take it that no transaction of this or 
any other kind with a foreign power can take place except through the 
executive departments and that in the form of a treaty, agreement or 
convention. When the acquisition is made, Congress can then make 
such disposition of it as may be expedient. 

As to the other question which is founded on a doubt whether the 
president will take complete possession or not, it really exhibits the most 
unconstitutional distrust of the executive department which I have ever 
witnessed. If he can not be trusted, who are to be the judges whether 
this delivery of possession be complete or not ? Does the gentleman from 
Connecticut intend that the two Houses of Congress shall take upon 
themselves the management of this business ? But greater trusts have been 
confided to former presidents. Have gentlemen forgotten the law of 
i 798 or 1 799, which enabled the then president not only to raise an army, 
but g*o to war, if, in his opinion, exigencies require it? Have they for- 
gotten a more recent event — ^the resolution proposed by themselves at the 
last session, authorizing the president to raise an army of 50,000 men 
and take possession of this country by force ? The confidence -of gentlemen 
in the president was then abundant, indeed, but now he can not be trusted 
to receive peaceable possession of that which, but a few months ago, they 
v/ere anxious to authorize him to take by conquest from both France 
and Spain. 

Is not the national honor pledged to procure this right ? What course 
do the gentlemen mean to pursue to attain it? Or do they mean to 
abandon near a million "of your Western citizens to ruin and despair? If 
you really reject this treaty, with what face can you open another nego- 
tiation? What president would venture another mission, or what minister 
could be prevailed on to be made the instrument of another negotiation? 
You adopt the treaty, direct possession to be taken of the country and 
refuse to pay it ! What palliation can we offer to our Western citizens for 
a conduct like this? Will they be content with the refined and meta- 
physical reasonings and constructions upon which gentlemen have bottomed 
their opposition to-day? Will it be satisfactory to them to be told that 
the title is good, the price low, the finances competent and the authority, 
at least to purchase, constitutional; but that the admission of these people 
to all privileges we ourselves enjoy is not permitted by the Constitution? 
It will not, sir. 

Without disparagement, Mr. President, to any portion of America, I 
hesitate not to declare that I believe the people of the Western States are 
as sincerely attached to the Confederacy and to the true principles of the 
Constitution as any other quarter of the Union. A great portion of them 
have emigrated from the Atlantic States, and are attached to them by all 
the ties which so strongly bind societies together. The present generation 
may therefore possibly be disposed to endure much. But can you hope 
that these attachments or dispositions to acquiesce in wrong will descend 
to our sons? Let no such calculations, I pray you, be made either upon 
us or on those who are to succeed us. They will prove fallacious. There 



JOHN BRECKINRIDGE, 71 

is a point of endurance beyond which even the advocates for passive 
obedience and non-resistance can not expect men to pass. That point is 
at once reached the moment you solemnly declare, by your vote, that a 
part of your citizens shall not enjoy those natural rights and advantages 
of which they are justly deprived and which you have not the complete 
power to restore to them. Then it is that gentlemen may talk of danger 
to the Union; then it is I shall tremble for my country; and then it is, 
and not till then, I shall agree with the gentlemen that the Confederacy is 
in danger. 



JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 

[Jolm C. Breckinridge, Vice-President of the United States, was born 
near Lexington, Ky., January 21, 1821; died near Lexington, May 17, 1875; 
educated at Center College and studied law at Transylvania University; 
Major, Kentucky Volunteers in Mexican war; elected to Congress in 1851 
and 1853; elected Vice-President of the United States in 1856; United States 
Senator in 1860; expelled from United States Senate December 4, 1861; 
Major-General Confederate Army; Secretary of War in President Davis' 
Cabinet, January, 1865, to close of war.] 

REMOVAL OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 

A speech delivered in 1858; the occasion was the last gathering of the 
United States Senate in the old Senate chamber. 

On the sixth day of December, 1819, we assembled for the first time 
in this chamber, which has been the theater of their deliberations for more 
than thirty-nine years. 

And now the strife and uncertainties of the past are finished. We see 
around us on every side the proofs of stability and improvement. The 
capitol is worthy of the republic. No public buildings meet the view on 
every hand. Treasures of science and the arts begin to accumulate. As 
this flourishing city enlarges, it testifies to the wisdom and forecast that 
dictated the plan of it. Future generation will not be disturbed with 
questions concerning the center of population, or of territory, since the 
steamboat, the railroad and the telegraph have made communication almost 
instantaneous. The spot is sacred by a thousand memories, which are 
so many pledges that the city of Washington, founded by him and bearing 
his revered name, with its beautiful site, bounded by picturesque emin- 
ences and the broad Potomac, and lying within view of his home and tomb, 
shall remain forever the political capital of the United States. 

It would be interesting to note the gradual changes which have occurred 
in the practical working of the Government since the adoption of the 
Constitution, and it may be appropriate on this occasion to remark one 
of the most striking of them. 

At the origin of the Government, the Senate seemed to be regarded 
chiefly as an executive council. The President often visited the chamber 
and conferred personally with this body; most of the business was trans- 
acted with closed doors and took comparatively little part in the legislative 
debates. The rising and vigorous intellects of the country sought the 
arena of the House of Representatives as the appropriate theater for the 
display of their powers. Mr. Madison observed, on some occasion, that, 
being a young man and desiring to increase his reputation, he could not 
afford to enter the Senate; and it will be remembered that so late as 1812 
the great debates which preceded the war and aroused the country to the 
assertion of its rights took place in the other branch of Congress. To such 
an extent was the idea of seclusion carried that when this chamber was 
completed, no seats were prepared for the accommodation of the public, 
and it was not until many years afterwards that the semi-circular gallery 



JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 78 

was erected which admits the people to be witnesses of your proceedings. 
But now the Senate, besides its peculiar relations to the executive depart- 
ment of the Government, assumes its full share of duty as a co-equal 
branch of the Legislature ; indeed, from the limited number of its members 
and for other obvious reasons, the most important questions, especially 
of foreign policy, are apt to pass first under discussion in this body, and 
to be a member of it is justly regarded as one of the highest honors which 
can be conferred on an American statesman. 

It is scarcely necessary to point out the causes of this change or to 
say that it is a concession both to the importance and to the individuality 
of the States and to the free and open character of the Government. 

In connection with this easy but thorough transition, it is worthy of 
remark that it has been effected without a charge from any quarter that 
the Senate has transcended its constitutional sphere — a tribute at once 
to the moderation of the Senate and another proof to the thoughtful men 
of the comprehensive wisdom with which framers of the Constitution 
secured essential principles without inconveniently embarrassing the action 
of the Government. 

The progress of this popular movement in one aspect of it has been 
steady and marked. At the origin of the Government, no arrangements 
in the Senate were made for spectators; in this chamber about one-third 
of the space is allotted to the public ; and in the new apartment the galleries 
cover two-thirds of its area. In all free countries the admission of the 
people to witness legislative proceedings is an essential element of public 
confidence, and it is not to be anticipated that this wholesome principle 
will ever be abused by the substitution of partial and interested demon- 
strations for the expression of a matured and enlightened public opinion. 
Yet it should never beforgotten that not France, but the turbulent spec- 
tators within the hall, awed and controlled the French Assembly. With 
this lesson and its consequences before us, the time will never come when 
the deliberations of the Senate shall be swayed by the blandishments or 
the thunders of the galleries. 

It is impossible to disconnect from an occasion like this a crowd of 
reflections on our past history and of speculations on the future. The most 
meager account of the Senate involves a summary of the progress of our 
country. From year to year you have seen your representation enlarge; 
again and again you have proudly welcomed a new sister into the Con- 
federacy; and the occurrences of this day are a material and impressive 
proof of the growth and prosperity of the United States. Three periods in 
the history of the Senate in striking contrast, three epochs in the history 
of the Union. 

On the third of March, 1789, when the Government was organized 
under the Constitution, the Senate was composed of the representatives 
of eleven States, containing three millions of people. 

On the sixth of December, 1819, when the Senate met for the first 
time in this room, it was composed of the representatives of twenty-one 
States, containing nine millions of people. 

To-day it is composed of the representatives of thirty-two States, con- 
taining more than twenty-eight millions of people, prosperous, happy and 
still devoted to constitutional liberty. Let these great facts speak for 
themselves to all the world. 

The career of the United States can not be measured by that of any 
other people of whom history gives account, and the mind is almost 



74 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

appalled at the contemplation of the prodigious force which has marked 
their progress. Sixty-nine years ago, thirteen States, containing three 
millions of inhabitants, burdened with debt and exhausted by the long war 
of independence, established for their common good a free Constitution on 
principles new to mankind and began their experiment with the good 
wishes of a few doubtful friends and the derision of the world. Look at 
the result to-day: Twenty-eight millions of people in every way happier 
than an equal number in any other part of the globe, the center of popula- 
tion and political power, descending the western slopes of the Alleghany 
mountains, and the 'original thirteen States forming but the eastern margin 
on the map of our vast possessions. 

See, besides, Christianity, civilization and the arts given to a continent ; 
the despised colonies grown into a power of the first class, representing 
and protecting ideas that involve the progress of the human race; a com- 
merce greater than that of any other nation; free interchange between 
States; every variety of climate, soil and production to make a people 
power and happy; in a word, behold present greatness and in the future 
an empire to which the ancient mistress of the world in the height of her 
glory could not be compared. Such is our country, aye, and more, 
far more than my mind could conceive or my tongue could utter. Is there 
an American who regrets the past? Is there one who. will deride his 
country's laws, pervert her Constitution or alienate her people? If there 
be such a man, let his memory descend to posterity laden with the execra- 
tions of all mankind. 

So happy is the political and social condition of the United States, 
and so accustomed are we to secure enjoyment of a freedom elsewhere 
unknown, that we are apt to undervalue the treasures we possess and to 
lose in some degree the sense of obligation to our forefathers. But when 
the strifes of faction shake the Government, and even threaten it, we 
may pause with advantage long enough to remember that we are reaping 
the reward of other men's labors. This liberty we inherit; this admirable 
Constitution, which has survived peace and war, prosperity and adversity; 
this double scheme of government. State and Federal, so peculiar and 
so little understood by other powers, yet which protects the earnings of 
industry and makes the largest freedom compatible with public order — 
these great results were not achieved without wisdom and toil and blood; 
the heroic and touching record is before the world. But to all this we 
were born and, like heirs upon whom has been cast a great inheritance, 
have only the high duty to preserve, to extend and to adorn it. The grand 
productions of the era in which the foundations of this Government were 
laid reveal the deep sense its founders had of their obligations to the whole 
family of man. Let us never forget that the responsibilities imposed -on 
this generation are by so much greater than those which rested on our 
Revolutionary ancestors as the population, extent and power of our country 
surpass the dawning promise of ifs origin. 

It would be a pleasing task to pursue many trains of thought, not 
wholly foreign to this occasion, but the temptation to enter the wide field 
must be rigorously curbed; yet I may be pardoned, perhaps, for one or 
two additional reflections. 

The Senate is assembled for the last time in this chamber. Henceforth 
it will be converted to other uses ; yet it must remain forever connected with 
great events, and sacred to the memories of the departed orators and 
statesmen who here engaged in high debates and shaped the policy of their 



JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 75 

country. Hereafter the American and the stranger- as they wander through 
the capitol will turn with instinctive reverence to view the spot on which 
so many and great materials have accumulated for history. They will 
recall the images of the great and good, whose renown is the common 
property of the Union; and chiefly, perhaps, they will linger around the 
seats once occupied by the mighty three whose names and fame, associated 
in life, death has not been able to sever; illustrious men who, in their gener- 
ation, sometimes divided, sometimes led, and sometimes resisted public 
opinion, for they were of that higher class of statesmen who seek the right 
and follow their convictions. 

There sat Calhoun, the senator, inflexible, austere, oppressed, but not 
overwhelmed by his deep sense of the importance of his public functions, 
seeking the truth, then fearlessly following it — a man whose unsparing 
intellect compelled all his notions to harmonize with deductions of his 
rigorous logic and whose noble countenance habitually wore the expression 
of one engaged in the performance of high public duties. 

This was Webster's seat. He, too, was every inch a senator. Conscious 
of his own vast powers, he reposed with confidence on himself, and, 
scorning the contrivances of smaller men, he stood among his peers all 
the greater for the simple dignity of his sensational demeanor. Type of 
his Northern home, he rises before the imagination, in the grand and 
granite outline of his form and intellect, like a great New England rock, 
repelling a New England wave. As a senatorial orator, his great efforts 
are historically associated with this chamber, whose very air seems to 
vibrate beneath the strokes of his deep tones and his weighty words. 

On the outer circle sat Henry Clay, with his impetuous and ardent 
nature untamed by age and exhibiting in the Senate the same vehement 
patriotism and passionate eloquence that of yore electrified the House of 
Representatives and the country. His extraordinary personal endowments, 
his courage, all his noble qualities, invested him with an individuality and 
a charm of character which in any age would have made him a favorite 
of history. He loved his country above all earthly objects. He loved 
liberty in all countries. Illustrious man! Orator, patriot, philanthropist, 
whose light, at its meridian, was seen and felt in the remotest parts of 
the civilized world, and whose declining sun, as it hastened down the west, 
threw back its level beams in hues of mellowed splendor to illuminate 
and to cheer the land he loved and served so well. 

And now^ senators, we leave this memorable chamber, bearing with 
us unimpaired the Constitution we received from our forefathers. Let 
us cherish it with grateful acknowledgments to the Divine power who 
controls the destinies of empires and whose goodness we adore. The 
structures reared by men yield to the corroding tooth of time. These 
marble walls must molder into ruin, but the principles of constitutional 
liberty, guarded by wisdom and virtue, unlike material elements, do not 
decay. Let us devoutly trust that another Senate, in another age, 
shall bear to a new and larger chamber this Constitution, vigorous and 
inviolate, and that the last generation of posterity shall witness the delib- 
erations of the representatives of American States still united, prosperous 
and free. 



WILLIAM C. P. BRECKINRIDGE. 

[William C. P. Breckinridge, Lawyer, Congressman, was born in Balti- 
more, Md., August 28, 1837; died in Lexington, Ky., November 19, 1904; 
graduated from Centre College, Danville, Ky., in 1853; Captain and Colonel 
in the Confederate Army; Member of Congress from the Ashland, Kentucky, 
District, 1885-95; Member Lexington, Ky., bar from 1857 to 1904.] 

WHO WERE THE CONFEDERATE DEAD? 

An extract from a speech delivered by Col. W. C. P. Breckinridge, at 
the unveiling ceremonies of the Confederate Monument at Hopkinsville, 
Ky., May 19. 1887. 

My Countrymen: 

Who were these men over whom this stately memorial, with its admir- 
ing inscriptions and loving praise, has been erected ? Here lie one hundred 
and one dead, of whom this silent but imposing witness testifies that in 
their graves "is buried all of heroism that can die;" concerning whom it 
is engraved on granite "that while martyrs for conscience' sake are 
respected, their valor and devotion will be admired by the good and the 
brave," whose very dust is averred in enduring stone as "sacred dust," 
and yet they are "unknown" men. As we study these inscriptions in our 
endeavor to understand why this monument was erected and this vast 
crowd has assembled to do honor to these "unknown" dead, we read, 
"Confederate dead, belonging to the 1st Mississippi Regiment, 3d Missis- 
sippi Regiment, 7th Texas, 8th Kentucky, Forrest's Cavalry, Woodward's 
Kentucky Cavalry, Green's Kentucky Battery," and that this monument 
is erected at the place of his birth by a surviving comrade "to commem- 
orate the virtue of the Confederate dead." 

This, then, is the cause and this the defense of this monument and of 
this ceremonial; a Confederate whom God has prospered thinks it an 
honor to his native town to make it the perpetual witness to the honor 
of the Confederate dead, and this great crowd of freemen, gathered from 
so many sections, these reverend and distinguished guests, these venerable 
lathers and this throng of fair women by their presence approve the 
generous act. And is it so that on the bosom of this beloved Common- 
wealth, in one of the fairest sections of this imperial republic, fathers and 
mothers approvingly testify to that new and splendid generation which is 
pushing us oflf our seats of power that it is a praiseworthy deed to do 
honor to the memory of the Confederate dead? Let us not this day 
disguise this question to our hearts or consciences; we must answer it 
at the bar of "posterity" and submit to the verdict that the august tribunal 
of its enlightened public opinion will then render. When this generation 
has finally passed away, and its deeds are weighed by those who will be 
our judges, be assured that we will receive some judgment for this scene 
and its evident meaning. 

Those judges will repeat my question. Who were the Confederate dead 
that to them such honor should be paid ? 



WILLIAM G. P. BRECKINRIDGE. 77 

How joyously can these queries be partly answered — ^they were soldiers 
and heroes ! 

A peaceful and pastoral people, suddenly called to war, found them- 
selves without arms, without ships, without factories where any part of 
a warlike arm or its ammunition could be made, without an army, without 
a treasury, and without a Government. They were five millions of free 
whites with a black slave population of four millions in their midst. Con- 
fronted by twenty millions of the most warlike people in the world, bone 
of their bone, rich in every material, with the trained nucleus of a superb 
army, with unlimited credit and unparalleled resources, an equipped navy 
and an old Government; this pastoral people organized an army larger in 
the aggregate than the whole number of its adult free males, captured in 
the main its arms and military supplies, improvised a Government, and for 
four years faced armies which in number, equipment, resources and facilities 
the world has never seen equaled. 

During these four years, in this terrific and unequal strife, these dead 
had fallen. They had come from the plow and the desk, the plane and 
the office, the beautiful valley farm and the outstretching plantation, of 
every age and rank and vocation, and given their lives, all they had, to this 
unparalleled struggle. Heroes, indeed, were they who fell where Sidney 
Johnson died, who crowned Jackson with immortality, followed Lee with 
intelligent faith, made Chicamauga run red with fraternal blood, rode 
with Morgan, shared in the victories of Forrest, died on the picket post, 
or went to God from prison bunk or scaffold. 

With scant rations and scanter clothing, with inferior numbers, always 
relatively decreasing, with the circle of ever-increasing foes narrowing 
upon them, homes lost to many, their lands devastated by the severest 
rigors of internecine war, with wondrous victories bearing no fruit, with 
loved ones homeless and dependent on the straitened for daily bread, 
with a future all dark and uncertain, these men never faltered — ^they died. 
And to those distant queries we can proudly answer. These men were 
heroes. 

But is this all the answer we can make at that illustrious bar? Who 
were these Confederates? They were American citizens "of the Southern 
States of the American republic. 

That great Teutonic race which sets limits to the growth of the 
Roman Empire had worked out a noble development in the British Isles. 
There is a fixed, though obscure^ relation between a people and its institu- 
tions and a certain, though often imperceptible, progress in the development 
of each and they mutually affect each other. Noble races unconsciously 
develop noble institutions, noble institutions produce noble races, and this 
upward growth must be difficult, slow, and, alas! has always been 
bloody, and out of these conflicts emerge a better people and wider 
institutions. 

And for seven centuries this race from which we sprang had grown 
from soil the richest under the stars with the blood of martyrs and heroes. 
The luminous track of British history shines resplendent with the reddest 
blood and the most precious mile-stones which indicate the progress of our 
ancestors are the scaffolds where the martyrs died or the poles on which 
the severed heads of the traitors were lifted up. 

And so, from age to age, every age having its own "Lost Cause" and 
meeting apparently its fatal repulse, the ceaseless struggle went on with 
constant success. The conquering Norman gradually became Englishmen, 



78 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

the Parliament became free, even though the dead Cromwell hang in 
chains and "Charles came to his own." The colonist brought here with 
him certain rights, but much more he was a Briton freeman. He was as 
much the product of these ages and these struggles as the institutions of 
which he was inheritor. And so here the development continued. These 
colonies were British, not French nor Spaniard, and this one fact, this 
controlling fact, determined the line of development. 

These colonists brought with them inherent, inalienable rights as men; 
immemorial and constitutional rights as Britons; chartered rights as new 
colonists under royal grants or charters, and they grew with their new 
life into larger desires; the colonies became States, the colonists American 
citizens. Thus came into being American institutions. Thus, free and law- 
loving, these colonists were separated into thirteen independent States when 
the problem of forming their government was by destiny presented to 
them. 

Society organized into government can make law — that is, legislate; 
declare what the law is, adjudicate; enforce the law, execute. Once all 
these functions were exercised by one body of magistracy, often by a single 
person; gradually the magistracies became separate, the law-making de- 
partment becoming a parliament, the law-declaring an independent judiciary, 
the law-executing the executive. This was the form in the main in which 
our Colonial Governments were when we won our independence. And as 
all powers exercised by either of these departments are delegated powers, 
delegated in thought by the people constituting that organism we call a 
"State," and as the officers required to discharge the duties thus imposed 
by the State are representatives of the sovereign power residing in the 
body of the people, some mode of defining, prescribing and limiting these 
powers and of selecting these public servants had to be agreed upon. But, 
in the main, this had also been the growth of years; legislative bodies 
chosen by suffrage; executives directly or indirectly so chosen; judges 
selected by the executives and confirmed by some selected representative 
body. So the task of adapting a government of the State to the new 
and, freer order was not very difficult, and the mistakes were easily 
remedied and were not fatal. And in every constitution was inserted the 
fundamental conception that those powers were granted powers; that 
this government found its only warrant in the consent of the governed, 
and the power of alteration was expressly reserved. 

These written constitutions were a new contribution by America to 
political science and to the muniments of freedom. They have been 
confounded with such acts as the Magna Charta, as royal charters by king 
or emperor, as the Bill of Rights by Parliament. They are generically 
and radically diiferent. 

The Magna Charta is a solemn claim by English barons of what were 
English liberties and a solemn acknowledgment by king that the claim 
was well founded and should be respected. Royal charters and grants 
were gracious privileges or franchises or gifts from a sovereign of his own 
will to subjects. Bills of Rights by Parliament were legislative declarations 
of the existing political rights. But these American constitutions are the 
solemn act of the sovereign people establishing a form of government, 
delegating to its officers the prescribed powers, limiting the modes of 
their exercise, ordering the mode of selection and tenure of office, and 
placing on itself the agreed limitations. They were without precedent in 
history and without parallel. 



WILLIAM G. P. BRECKINRIDGE . 79 

There were certain purposes that our fathers had concerning which 
there can be no doubt. The first was to preserve the liberty of the citizens; 
this is the very cause of the formation of all governments by the free. 
Then to preserve the integrity and independence of the States. To 
accomplish these purposes, it was necessary that there should be strength, 
power, wealth; and, to secure these, there must be union, such union as 
secured to each the power of all and freed each from danger of offense 
by any American State. So that the problem was, How can these thirteen 
States of one people be so united as to preserve the liberty of the citizen 
and the integrity of the State, secure the country from foreign foe and 
each State from attack from ambitious American States, and guarantee 
the quickest and most solid growth in power and wealth? The Federal 
Constitution is the answer our fathers gave to that problem, and an 
immortal answer they made. It was a compromise and must be construed 
as a compromise. There were numerous incidental but grave questions. 
It was an immense territory for which they were legislating. 

On an evil day, a cargo of Africans were sold into slavery, then 
universally recognized as legal and humane, for the individual slavery of 
the black was held to be a distinct conception from the political freedom 
of the citizen and the national independence of a country. Other cargoes 
came. The prolific and docile race increased rapidly in number and more 
rapidly in value. In a new country labor is most valuable. When new 
land is to be reduced to tillage, and its value is enormously increased by 
the mere act of preparing it for home and tillage, disciplined and con- 
trolled labor is extremely valuable. For climatic and economical reasons 
these slaves were generally concentrated within the Southern States by 
purchase, and that purchase mainly from the citizens of the Northern 
States. These slaves were black, and there is no people with such race 
prejudices as this English-speaking race. They hold tenaciously to the 
belief that man is of one race, but they have held their own blood pure 
from all intermixture with the colored races. There has been revealed no 
stronger nor more intense passion than this passion for race purity by 
this colonizing and dominating people. Neither in Asia, nor Africa, nor 
America has it consented to either marital intermixture or political part- 
nership with any other than a white race. But while this was true, it was 
also true that slavery became one of the institutions of these Southern 
States. Slavery did represent so much money, but it represented very much 
more. It became interwoven into the social fabric of the State in a way 
now hard to explain. It undoubtedly influenced the civilization and de- 
velopment of those States. It dignified color so that to be a white man 
was a tie that every other white man recognized. It made race and color, 
not condition and wealth, the distinction. It gave habits of domination 
and caused a form of pastoral life that was peculiar and influential. If 
the slave had been white, the problem had been easy of solution; had 
the number been small, there could have been found an easy remedy; had 
the number actually in America been evenly distributed through all the 
States, there would have been no danger; however, it had to be managed 
as it was, and one of the compromises of the Constitution was concerning 
this institution. When the Constitution went into effect, and the first 
Congress thereunder organized, the experiment of American liberty was 
fairly commenced. 

With equal strides the North and the South grew. The "South," 
comprising the fifteen States of Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, 



80 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Texas, had increased abso- 
lutely with immense strides, but relatively they had not kept pace with 
the North and the Northwest; and it had been found that the institution of 
slavery could be confined within the limits of those States. That institution 
was protected by the provisions of the Constitution and by the sovereignty 
of each State, if that sovereignty was recognized and could be maintained. 
Those States were in the main agricultural; in religion, believing; in life, 
simple; in manners, cordial. 

In these States were bom, from these people sprang, under these 
institutions were fostered, amid such scenes grew up these Confederate 
dead. They were the descendants of the men who made England a 
Commonwealth, preserved the freedom of Scotland, ceaselessly protested 
against the servitude of Ireland; their sires had colonized America, con- 
quered the French at Quebec, driven the Indian inward; their grandfathers 
sat in the Continental Congress, served with Washington, conquered at 
King's Mountain; their fathers were with Perry at Erie or with Jackson 
at New Orleans; their elder brothers fell at Buena Vista, or received the 
surrender at Mexico. 

The Confederate armies were equal to their ancestors; with equal 
courage, and perhaps greater skill, they faced more tremendous odds and 
had a sadder fortune. Who can adequately represent in language that 
host and the four years of its struggles and sacrifices? 

In the long and glorious procession of armies which have been used 
by the subtle forces which raise and move armies in the development of 
man, none need be ashamed of the companionship of these defeated and 
surrendered men. We can with proud confidence leave their glory to 
history and trust their deeds to fame; and as the story of those years is 
more accurately told, as the cost of their defeat more fully understood, 
and their achievements better known, all who love heroic virtues and are 
inspired with lofty purposes will revere the memories of that immortal 
array. 

These one hundred and one unknown dead constituted a part of that 
illustrious army and bore their full share in its labors and dangers. 
Obscure, perhaps, and in the simple vocations of peaceful life, they fol- 
lowed where duty led and died where honor ordered and reverently, 
but proudly, we dedicate this memorial to these heroes who lie here, and 
to all their comrades wherever they rest waiting for the resurrection 
morning; and then we lift up our faces with inexpressible pride and 
claim these men as our comrades and challenge that questioning posterity 
in its days of peril and disaster to match them. 

These dead were not from the same State ; this monument reveals that 
they were from Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee (for Forrest's Cavalry was 
a Tennessee battalion oris:inally, and Woodward's Kentucky Cavalry had 
Tennessee companies in it) and Kentucky. 

My comrades, we gave the services of our young manhood to that 
csuse in violation of the command of our mother — Kentucky. Our Ken- 
tucky, beloved mistress of our hearts, refused to secede from the Union, 
and yet we turned our steps southward, and drew our arms to follow 
where Lee or other leaders ordered. Kentucky did not call us by the voice 
of a sovereign convention, or the order of her Governor, or the act of 
her Legislature, to enter that service. Nay ! for our service her Legislature 



WILLIAM C. P. BRECKINRIDGE. 



81 



expatriated us, declaring by solemn act that we were no more worthy to be 
her sons; her grand juries indicted us for treason, and warrants of arrest 
were issued for our apprehension, as if we had been felons. Were 
Breckinridge and Buckner, and Preston, Hanson and Morgan and Helm 
indeed, without excuse in thus entering the Confederate service and 
tempting the ingenuous youth who had followed them to form battalions 
regiments and brigades, on whose tattered banners glory abided, whose 
charge gave victory, whose presence forbade panic? We loved Kentucky 
she was worthy of our love. The physical gifts which make her beautiful 
among the daughters of the nations were not equal to the heroic actions 
of her sons and the exquisite graces of her daughters. Fairest among 
ten thousand and altogether lovely was she to our young and bounding 
love. Historic memories clustered about here, and every vallev and 
mountain side held the graves of heroes, while from every brook and 
crystal stream ascended melodious anthems to the brave and good whose 
lives had sanctified their banks. We, too, loved that old Union of the 
States of which we proudly claimed Kentucky was the heart. At home 
and abroad our fathers had made it famous. For it Kentuckians had 
won the mighty Mississippi and secured the outreaching empire west- 
ward to the Rocky Mountains; for it Kentuckians fell at the River Raisin 
drove Tecumseh to his death at the Thames, and charged at the plain of 
Chalmette; for it McKee and Clay died at Buena Vista, and their kinsmen 
from Vera Cruz to Mexico; for it Clay taught America the subtle power 
ct compromise, the potent influence of concession; and for it the love of 
all who love mankind and the prayers of all who loved God went out 
in sweet and pious accord. 

We did not fight to defend our homes and our hearthstones. Mothers 
and wives and children were not behind us as we stood facing the foe. 
We were not ramparts of fire between an advancing enemy and the 
swelling plains and busy towns of our people. No inspiriting crowds, no 
beating drum and piercing fife, no patriotic sweetheart, no overwhelming 
pressure of public opinion forced us to recruit. In squads, by twos or 
fours or alone, in the night time, by by-ways and through the woods, 
leaving all that was dearest behind, we found our way to where we could 
be mustered into the Confederate service. As a rule, each man rode his 
own horse or paid his own way and provided his own arms and outfit. 

It is one of the most striking and picturesque of the many attractive 
studies of the late war, the formation of the Kentucky regiments of the 
Confederate army. Where the 1st Kentucky in Virginia met and organized, 
Camp Boone in Tennessee, Camp Charity where Morgan rested, the 
rendezvous where Marshall and Williams gathered their soldiers, here and 
there a church or cross-roads where a company organized or the neighbor 
boys met and rode out together, these will never cease to be "hallowed 
ground," for here "majestic men whose deeds have dazzled faith" entered 
on a heroic struggle for true constitutional liberty, for that liberty which 
no other basis for a Government than the consent of the governed, and 
is convinced that the conquest of any one State of a Federal Union involves 
the right to destroy all the States. 

^ We were not fighting a personal fight; we were not moved by the 
spirit of spite or anger or revenge. It was with unfeigned sadness, with 
2 sorrow too deep for expression, that we entered into the war, and only 
because we could not keep a good conscience otherwise; and we were, 



82 



KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE 



as we believed, fighting the battle of the North as of the South, the battle 
of the free of all nations and ages. 

The war resulted in the overwhelming defeat of the "South" — its 
complete conquest. It was fought out to the end, and at that end the 
"South" was prostrate, and the institution of slavery destroyed; and to 
the thoughtful it was also certain that liberation would be followed by 
enfranchisement. 

The poverty of the Southern States at the close of the war was 
apj)alling; the desolation beyond description. Every form of accumulated 
capital had been swept away; every corporate institution hopelessly bank- 
rupt; every State deeply in debt, and the amount of private indebtedness 
beyond all hope of payment. 

A beggared people indeed were they. Fences all gone, work stock 
nearly so, fields in briars, many houses burnt, no money, no credit, no 
provisions, no implements of industry, not even seed for harvest. The 
negro free; the white adult a paroled soldier or an aged man, frequently 
a disabled and wounded man; and in many families only widows, orphan 
maidens and fatherless children; without political privileges, and with the 
prospect of a chaotic and harsh period of unstable and doubtful rule; the 
States without recognized governments, and the relations of the races, 
of the citizens and of the States to the Federal Government in grave 
dispute and doubt. It was, indeed, a sad and desolate picture ! 

But all was not lostj far from it. God, the future and manhood re- 
mained, and these contain all the possibilities of success. 

There was no alternative left to that people but a stern and resolute 
struggle for bread, and then for the recovery of political liberty. The 
war had legislated; it had in a new sense made one the United States; the 
destiny of the nation was involved, the destiny of every section and all 
citizens; one country, one flag, one destiny was the fiat of this tribunal, 
and the future of the South was indissolubly interwoven with that of 
the Union. In that Union, under that Government, however modified 
by the events of those years, must these Southern States work out their 
restoration. Within the limitations imposed by that Government, and by 
their actual condition, must they make their recovery. Without repining, 
with no unmanly cringing, no pretense of repentance or remorse, aye, 
proud of their dead comrades and conscious of their own rectitude and 
heroism, they turned their faces to the future, put their trust anew in God 
and went to work. It was a pathetic but glorious spectacle, that conquered 
and beggared people, amid the ruins of their States and the destruction of 
their hopes, surrounded by the graves of their beloved slain, and in the 
depths of poverty, intensely at work for daily bread, and resolutely set on 
doing the best possible under the circumstances encompassing them. 

It was ordained that the experiment of American liberty should be tried 
under one Union, without slavery and with the enfranchised negro; and 
with one heart the "South" went to work to perform with absolute 
fidelity her part of this mighty enterprise. And her people in their desolation 
never despaired. It was not what they yearned for, but it was worth 
every labor and all sacrifices. The land was infinitely more precious for 
the very blood, shed as if in vain. The spots new hallowed were dearer 
than all the land had been before. The precious landscapes, where new 
graves sanctified fields with new but now immortal names, were more 
exquisite to their hearts than any had ever been in days of yore. 

There were never better soldiers, never so good armies as the American 



WILLIAM C. P. BRECKINRIDGE. 83 

armies of that unhappy war, and this all soldiers of either army accord 
with admiration to the soldiers of the other army. ' Here, at least, there 
was cause for universal commendation. As Americans all could be proud 
of the American soldier. Lee might be a traitor, but he was a great captain 
and a pure gentleman; Jackson a rebel, but he was also a Christian 
soldier of superb gifts and stainless life, and his "foot cavalry" was never 
surpassed in march or charge or retreat, and in their hearts every Northern 
soldier was proud that his Southern brethren were of such stuff. Indeed, 
every monmuent erected to a Federal soldier is also a monument to com- 
memorate the skill, the courage, the heroism of the Confederate, for it is 
because of triumph over such soldiers that these monuments are erected. 

So, too, we have given without scant measure our meed of praise to 
those who withstood the charge of serried array, or who broke in irre- 
sistible might over our trenches; to those who held the heights of Gettys- 
burg against Lee and Longstreet, and drove Pickett backward from his 
wondrous charge; who held Franklin in spite of Hood and Cleburne; to 
Thomas who stood so firm at Chicamauga; and Sherman who marched 
from Dalton to the sea; to the silent and placable Grant, who compelled 
Donelson, Vicksburg and Richmond to acknowledge his power, and who 
gave generous terms to Lee, and, with proud honesty, demanded that the 
terms be respected. Honor alike to his prowess as a soldier and his honor 
as a conqueror. 

And year by year this will grow. Long ago, in this same beautiful 
month of May, standing by the Confederate graves in that dear cemetery 
which lies adjacent to my own beloved city, in the presence of those who 
loved those dead, and were there to honor their memory by strewing the 
first flowers of spring over their graves, I said : 

"In the presence of this sad assemblage, in the presence of the dead, 
in the sight of God, I feel that it would be sacrilege to utter one word 
that is not in every sense true. With this solemn thought pressing upon 
me, I believe that I utter the sentiment of those who hear me when I say 
that we trust the day may come when such peace will bless our land that 
all the living will lovingly do honor to all the dead. We are all Americans, 
we are citizens of a common country in whose destinies are involved the 
destinies of our children. Around us in this cemetery lie buried the dead 
of all. On that resurrection mom all will rise, side by side, to meet Him 
who died for all. Religion, patriotism, the love we bear our children, alike 
appeal with eloquent earnestness for the return of good feeling and 
brotherly love." 

At the foot of this stately monument of granite, this stone hewn from 
the mountains of Maine, now planted in the heart of Kentucky in honor 
of soldiers from States so distant as Texas, we pray God to grant that 
in that ceaseless contest our children may be as heroic, as enduring, as pure 
as these unknown dead, ready to live for the right, willing, if need be, 
to die for the right, as God gives it to them to see the right. 

I crave pardon for a single personal allusion. Some of these dead 
were of "Woodward's Kentucky Cavalry," with which battalion I served 
in the same brigade from September, 1863, until the end of the war, and 
which, from October, 1864, until May, 1865, served under my command. 

Its commanders, Colonel Woodward and Major Lewis, its officers and 
men, were therefore well known to me. It can not add to their reputation 
that I should praise them, but it is to me a sincere gratification to have 
opportunity to testify to my appreciation of all soldiery qualities by de- 



84 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

daring my love for and admiration of them. It was, indeed, a superb body 
of men, with a proud and glorious record. Trusted by Forrest, that Wizard 
of the Saddle, they were worthy of him and his confidence. I bow my 
uncovered head in reverent honor to the heroic dead of that beloved com- 
mand and with gratitude and friendship, undimmed by the lapse of 
twenty-two years, I hail with proud comradeship its no less heroic living. 

On this monument these heroes are called "unknown," and is this so? 
In the twenty-five years since they were buried here, the evidence of their 
names has been lost and to-day we know not by what names they were 
known. In that sense they are unknown; but their names are not lost. 
On the muster-rolls of their commands their honored names remain; on 
the hearts of those who loved them and mourned for them their precious 
names are engraven, on God's roll on high their names are radiant. We 
can not repeat their names; we can honor their memories; we can rever- 
ence their deeds; we can emulate their virtues; we can commemorate their 
deaths. 

On this gentle ascent stand, thou silent witness, and testify to all who 
come to this sacred place — here in the awful presence of the buried dead, 
in the tearful sight of the recurring visitations on the sad errand of burial, 
in the august presence of an everliving God — that to lofty virtues, sanctified 
by death, and to noble hopes, purified by sorrows and sacrifice, there is an 
immortality of bliss. 



CHARLES J. BRONSTON. 

[Charles J. Bronston, Lawyer, Lexington, Ky., was born in Richmond, 
Ky., July 29, 1848; graduate of Kentucky University, 1869; studied law at 
the University of Virginia; elected Commonwealth Attorney in 1879 and 
several times since; Member of the Kentucky Constitutional Convention 
of 1890; ex-Member of the Kentucky House of Representatives and Senate.] 

THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE TO VOTE ON THE QUESTION OF 
STATE CAPITOL LOCATION. 

A speech delivered in the Kentucky Constitutional Convention at 
Frankfort, Ky., Wednesday, April 8, 1891, in favor of giving the people of 
the Commonwealth of Kentucky the right to decide where the Capitol shall 
be located. 

Mr. President: 

Seven long months have I been with you ; seven long months has my 
time, labor and energy been yours; seven long months I have wearied 
you with my persistency; seven long months have I stood here and dared, 
in the face of vituperation and cavil, and even slander, to advocate the 
rights of the people of Kentucky. 

I may have often been wrong, but at the close of these labors I can 
say that I have never shirked a responsibility, nor have I skulked in the 
face of duty. I have gone down in the face of a majority, but to arise 
again on the morrow and try still harder to preserve the rights of the 
great people of Kentucky. Now, at its close, I am put in the attitude of 
wishing to drag Kentucky's fair name into the dust of shame. I am put in 
the attitude of advocating that Kentucky should break her plighted faith. 
I congratulate the delegates on this floor that whilst, for seven months, 
many of you, like myself, young and inexperienced, have grappled with 
our child-hands, as it were, the great constitutional questions, begging for 
light, begging for aid, some who have been in the lobbies, on the streets 
and through the public press, hurling at us contempt and scorn, are now 
lifting their voices in eloquent tones and damning us as traitors to the 
plighted faith of Kentucky. I say here, if I believed that one laurel was 
to be plucked from the crown 'of the fair Commonwealth, I would be 
the first to strike down the hand that stretched out to do it. But there is 
a great principle underlying this. It has found lodgment in my young heart, 
Mr. President, and as I would strike down the man who would reach out 
his hand to pluck the laurels from the crown of Kentucky, so will I 
strike down the man who, from personal motives or otherwise, dares to 
strike at the foundation of my Government, which is this: It belongs to 
the people, and it must be ruled by the people, and by nobody else, because 
we come, and, as it were, on bended knees, ask what? Have we asked 
that you take the capital and place it at Louisville or Lexington? Have 
we asked you to remove it from Frankfort? God forbid that I should 
stand upon this floor and seek to draw a contrast between either of these 
fair cities. We have simply asked you, sent by your people to this con- 
vention to formulate the great fundamental principles of government, that 



86 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

you have the manhood to say that the people may determine this question 
for themselves; and ytt the distinguished delegate from Marion, awakened, 
as it were, from his Van Winkle sleep, with tears upon his cheeks, stands 
upon the floor and, pointing his finger, says: "Young men of Kentucky, 
who have the future before you, who desire political honor and political 
fame, you must not dare to plant yourselves on the principle that the 
people of Kentucky have a right to vote -on matters concerning their wel- 
fare." I say we should, and hence you have the issue squarely before 
you now. Shall the people vote? Shall they express their will, or will 
you stifle their voice ? 

When you go home to your constituency, when one of your hard- 
handed farmers comes into your office and you catch him by the hand and 
he asks you the question : "Did you deny me the right to vote ? Did you 
say that 1 did not have honor enough and courage enough and intelligence 
enough to determine this question for myself?" what will be your answer? 
You, the delegate from Daviess, who strutted like a puppet before the 
footlights on yesterday, reminding me more of Punch and Judy than any- 
thing I have ever seen in actual life, when some one behind the scenes 
touched a spring beneath, Punch would jump to the front and his mouth 
fly open, and the ventriloquist would speak for him, when you go back 
to your constituents and stand in the midst of that proud people and 
they put to you the question. Why did you not let me vote on the question 
of capital location, will you draw your proud form to its fullest height 
and, throwing back your head, say: "Your faith was plighted and I could 
not vote to allow you the opportunity of violating your conscientious 
obligation?" Whose obligation is it? Is it yours, or is it your people's? 
Is it a question that addresses itself to you, or does it address itself to 
the six or eight thousand honest men you represent ? What is the question ? 

The delegate from Hart said yesterday that it was plighted faith. 
Why, said he, in 1792, when the first convention met to form a Constitu- 
tion, the capital had been temporarily located at Lexington. They desired 
to make some arrangement as to the location of the capital, and when the 
convention assembled they made this provision : That twenty-one members 
should be selected by lot, and that the delegates from the counties of 
Fayette and Mercer should alternately strike off delegates until there were 
five left, and those five had authority to make arrangements for the location 
of the capital and might receive bids. Then it was further provided, said 
he, that if, in the future, the Legislature, by a two-thirds vote, expressed 
the desire to change the seat of government, it should be done. Now, 
what was done by this committee? When Frankfort was a mere hamlet, 
when Franklin county had not been formed into a separate part of this 
government, these gentlemen, five in number, met and received propositions 
from Holmes and others, and that proposition was, "We will give you so 
much land, reserving alternate lots." For what? If you will locate the 
capital. It was done, and how was it done? The delegate from Simpson, 
who interjected that eloquent speech to-day, overlooked the fact that when 
that committee first met, it stood three for Lexington and two for Frankfort, 

By some mysterious means, I know not what, the delegate from 
Bourbon was absent when the time came to vote, and, in his absence, the 
member from Fayette arose and said : "Lest somebody in the future might 
charge that I had cast a vote to advance my town landed interest and the 
value thereof, I will vote to locate the capital at Frankfort." Upon a vote 
cast that way, you say the sovereign people of this Commonwealth bound 



CHARLES J. BRONSTON, 87 

their hands so that never, it matters not if Frankfort had ceased to be, it 
matters not if by some opening of the earth it had sunk out of existence, 
shall the capital be changed; and yet the same Constitution at the close 
provided that the great people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, when- 
ever they saw proper, might call another constitutional convention, and 
not simply change one provision in the Constitution, but every provision ; 
they could even change the form of government itself. This question of 
capital removal is not a new question. It has been decided in many courts, 
the question of removing county seats or capitals, and the uniform rule has 
been that it is a governmental question which no delegated authority can 
bind the Government on; that the people have always a right to change. 
Gentlemen say that tKis provision was ratified in 1799 and again in 1849. 
How ratified ? Ratified as you are trying to make them ratify it now. 

Do you say, if we put this in the convention, that the permanent seat 
of government shall be in Frankfort ? That that is conclusive and that the 
people have no right to reject it ? I dare you, yes, I even dare the delegate 
from Daviess to say that this Constitution, which we form here, should ba 
made the law of Kentucky without the approval of the people, or the 
expression of the popular will. You belie your own position ; you destroy 
your own fabric; you contradict yourself because you do submit the 
question to the people, whether they will keep faith or not by submitting 
to them the proposition that this shall be the permanent seat of government 
unless removed by two-thirds of both Houses of the Legislature. Do not 
the people have to vote on that ? And do they not have a chance to vote 
it down ? Can they not reject it ? You insist, and that is the only question 
at issue, that it shall be voted on in connection with the great Constitution 
which we have adopted. We ask a separation of the two. If you desire 
to put it as a separate proposition, that two-thirds of the people of Kentucky 
shall approve it, all right ; put it in that way. If you desire to put it in the 
alternative as to whether it shall be located at Frankfort, until two-thirds 
of the Legislature votes for its removal, or that the people themselves 
shall select the place, well and good. 

Mr. President, there has never been an issue more completely and 
thoroughly obscured by sophistry than the one under consideration. It 
has been said that it will cost the people something. As the delegate 
from Marion put it, with scorn upon his face, "You propose to compensate 
Kentucky by paying back to her the money she has expended," and yet, in 
the next breath, you hear some skilled logician use the argument that it is 
a simple question of economy; if you move the capital, you will have 
to build a much fmer one at Louisville or Lexington. Is that kind of 
argument fair? Put it in the most consistent way you choose, and test it 
simply as a matter of economy, and we say the Commonwealth of Ken- 
tucky shall not lose one dollar. 

Why and how ? This proposition to submit contains the provision that, 
although the vote may be in favor of removal, before it shall be moved 
a commission of three shall be appointed by the Governor (the man who 
does not represent the locality, but the whole State), who shall come to 
Frankfort and fix the value of the property of the State. If it be five 
hundred thousand dollars or a million, it must be paid by the city to which 
you propose to move it before the capital can be removed. Now, where 
does the additional cost come in ? You say the State will be satisfied with 
this building. If the commissioners should estimate these buildings as 
worth seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, as claimed by the com- 



88 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

mittee, could you not take seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars and 
build just as good a building in Louisville or Lexington? The provision 
in this Constitution which authorizes the Legislature to appropriate money 
to improve the capitol, or erect a new one, was stricken out, and the only 
way that one dollar can be appropriated for the erection of a new, or the 
improvement of the old, is by a vote of the people. Now, suppose you 
leave it at Frankfort, what will you do? Will you improve this building, 
or do as the committee appointed by Frankfort recommend, tear down 
these old buildings and let these lot-owners suffer here, and put the buildings 
up on the hill ? It makes no difference to them, just so it stays. 

Suppose you accept that phase of their proposition and tear down 
the buildings and erect others on the hill-top, will it cost less than it will 
on the site of Transylvania College at Lexington, or in the park at 
Louisville? You say Louisville will want a finer building. Louisville can 
not get a finer building unless your people authorize it by their votes, nor 
can Lexington. So away with this talk about ten or twenty millions and 
this argument about economy. I understand delegates have been button- 
holed and dragged around comers, and told that it cost eight or ten 
millions if the capital was removed. They overlooked entirely the fact 
that any expenditure must be authorized by a fair and honest vote of the 
people. 

For seven long months have you been entertained at the firesides of the 
Frankfort people. For seven long months have you looked into their faces 
and heard their voices, and it was beautifully said by the delegate from 
Marion that, in your health and prosperity, you have always met a 
responsive smile from the fair womanhood of Frankfort, and, in your 
sickness and despair, their kindly hands have been extended to your aid. 
Can you then settle this question in this presence ; ? Dare you undertake 
to do it? Go home to your people and stand in their midst and recall 
this fact. God grant that I may never forget it, for, while I would not 
open my mouth in condemnation of the fair city of Frankfort, I remember 
back yonder, at my home, in the blacksmith shop, on the farm, at the 
bench of the mechanic, are men whose consciences I am undertaking to 
judge of to-day. Can you, and will you do it ? Do you not strike down 
the very fundamental principle of government? I do not mean to reflect 
on any gentleman here, but if I can not trust my people, if the time should 
come in Kentucky that I shall be heard to lift my voice and say that the 
people of Kentucky can not guard their own conscience and honor, but 
that it must be guarded by delegated agents, God grant that then my tongue 
shall be stilled and no other word shall be permitted to pass my lips. 

Why are the people of Frankfort afraid of this question? Could not 
the delegate from Marion go out amongst the people of Kentucky and 
use his eloquence? Could not the delegate from Hart and the delegate 
from Daviess and the delegate from Scott go amongst their own people 
and, in their presence, recall the facts and ask them to keep the faith, 
and would it not be better that they should be permitted to go to the 
polls and record upon that book whether or not they believe that the 
faith of Kentucky was pledged to Andrew Holmes and others ? That is all 
we ask. I am not here to give reasons why it should be removed from 
Frankfort to Louisville or Lexington. The delegate from Union yesterday 
threw off the mask and said that this was not a popular government, but 
a representative government. I have learned too bitterly to know that the 
gentleman believes it is not a popular government. 1 learned to know that 



CHARLES J. BRONSTON. 89 

when I and others stood upon this floor and said that the people should 
be allowed at the polls to select the men who shoufd stand between them 
and the mammoth corporations of this Commonwealth, that they were 
driving the wheels of commerce over their very necks, but he and others 
upon this floor said no, the people are not competent to make the selection 
for themselves. 

Let me, in conclusion, thank you not only for the patient attention 
you have given me on this occasion — no, from the bottom of my heart, 
seared by misfortune, touched by the vile tongue of slander, burnt by a 
life of toil, because, from the time I stepped upon the threshhold of man- 
hood to this day, it has been nothing but toil of labor, shadow and darkness, 
yet to the hundred men who have assembled here, when we go to our 
homes, and when time has effaced the many pleasant memories — ^bear 
testimony to this, that your courtesy to me, the kindly attention you have 
always given my youthful babblings have lifted the burden and opened 
to me a new phase of life, and, God helping me, those smiles will encourage 
me to renewed efforts in the future. 

Then, hear me on bended knees these words : I ask you not to strike 
Frankfort down; not to honor Louisville; not to honor Lexington; but 
I ask you to crown the work of seven months, to crown that work which 
has been assailed by the gentlemen of the press who sit at the bench, who, 
for seven months, by misrepresentation, by villification, aye, and one of 
them by deliberate, coo[ and malicious lying, have sought to defeat it, but 
who, at last, have awakened to an interest in your work, and have asked 
you to locate the capital in Frankfort, in order that they may, in their issue 
of to-morrow, say that you have thrown the last lump into the old sinking 
ship and she is now sunk beyond all hope of recovery. Heed not advice 
that comes from such quarters. Whenever the voice of the people is 
stifled, the people have then the right to turn on the man who dares to 
stifle it and say you are unworthy of the position you hold. It is just 
like the servant sent out by his master to do his master's bidding who, 
whjen he gathers a little courage by reason of the fact that he is from 
beneath his master's look or his master's hand, turns and says. Although 
months ago I begged you to delegate me authority and, after seven months 
of time, I find that I am a bigger man than you, and I find that your 
faith has been pledged, and I was afraid you did not have intelligence 
enough to understand it, or courage enough to resist temptation, therefore, 
1 cast my vote for you. Will you do it, gentlemen of the convention? If 
you do, I shall be the last to murmur at that verdict. 



WILBUR F. BROWDER. 

fWilbur F. Browder, Lawyer, Russellville, Ky., was born in Clarksville, 
Tenn., December 12, 1848.] 

HAPPY IS THE NATION WHOSE KINGS ARE PHILOSOPHERS, 
AND WHOSE PHILOSOPHERS ARE KINGS. 

An address delivered before the Literary Societies of Bethel College, 
Russellville, Ky., Wednesday evening, June 13, 1883. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

When the invitation to deliver the annual address upon this occasion 
was received, a few weeks ago, it was accepted with an undisguised satis- 
faction, albeit not without many misgivings, for, to my mind, no task is 
pleasanter, while at the same time few responsibilities are graver than 
that involved in the undertaking assigned me by the generous partiality 
of the students of Bethel College. The young manhood of a country 
is its richest, its rarest possession, and the proper development and direction 
of that manhood is the loftiest duty of the State. 

In a land like ours, whose great destiny is confided to "a government 
of the people, by the people, for the people," where absolute equality is 
the chief cornerstone of civilization, of liberty and of law; where the 
scientific dogma of the survival of the fittest is the inexorable rule of 
social and civil and political life; where all power is lodged in the people, 
who alone are sovereign ; in this magnificent brotherhood of men dedicated 
to the service of humanity by the sisterhood of States, where none are 
bom great, where few have greatness thrust upon them, but where crown- 
less thousands achieve greatness by the stalwart arm of high resolve and 
without the invocation of prophet, priest or king, it is peculiarly important 
that the youth, the vanguard of each incoming generation, should early 
see and be prepared to grapple with the great problems which await their 
entrance upon the stage of action. 

Plato said, more than two thousand years ago, in an age which the 
colossal vanity of modem times is wont to stigmatize as an era of pagan 
darkness — 

"Happy is the nation whose kings are philosophers, 
And whose philosophers are kings." 

And no phrase has been coined in the mint of modem thought which so 
aptly and so eloquently expresses the profound truth, that universal knowl- 
edge and universal virtue are the essential conditions of every nation's 
happiness, prosperity and power; that in the domain of leaming, the mler 
and the mled, while differing in degree by reason of irremediable natural 
disabilities, should never diflfer in kind by reason of the neglect of the one 
or the apathy of the other. 

It is not my purpose, young gentlemen, to exhaust your patience by 
exhorting you to expend your energies and talents in the doubtful stmggle 
tor literary fame, but it seems to me that, under the circumstances sur- 



WILBUR F. BROWDER. 91 

rounding us to-night, in view of the object of this celebration, public 
sympathy with which has attracted thither this brilliant array of loveliness 
and beauty, that a brief discussion of the idea suggested by the illustrious 
Athenian just quoted will not be inappropriate. 

The unprejudiced student of history, the man who has the courage 
and capacity to divest himself of all preconceptions and to enter into its 
vast Pantheon inspired by that humility of spirit bom only of veneration 
for truth; who has the intellectual audacity to review the past life of the 
world for the sole purpose of ascertaining the facts, for the sake of the 
facts themselves, and without reference to the bearing these facts may have 
upon some peculiar theory of his own, derived, perchance, by inheritance 
from his father, or from the idiosyncrasies of his education, or imbibed 
from some creed-monger or system-builder, will willingly concede that the 
leading characteristic, the most conspicuous feature of the historical devel- 
opment of the race, is the gradual but sure encroachment of the intellectual 
upon the emotional man, and that the sum of human happiness and the 
sum of human power are augmented in exact proportion to the extent 
of this encroachment, to the growth of this ascendency. Mark you, I do 
not decry the spiritual side of man's nature. Far from it. Out of the 
religious instincts of humanity have sprung some of the lordliest creations 
of tRought, some of the noblest adornments of character. But the principle 
mentioned is incontestable. The fact stated is the central fact of history, 
the central sun around which and in the blaze of whose light all other 
facts revolve, as the lesser planets revolve about the central glory of the 
solar system. It pervades the annals of time like a river threading its 
devious way over the plains, gathering volume and vigor as it nears the 
ocean. It is discernible, in the long record of the race, with as much dis- 
tinctness, with as much clearness, as the wanderings of the gulf stream 
are traceable in the geography of the seas, or the path of the comet in the 
topography of the skies. It is significant of the supremacy of mind over 
feeling. It signalizes the triumph of intellect over the senses and is 
prophetic of the coming of that day which shall witness the coronation 
of Intellect, as the sceptred monarch of universal empire, whose divine 
majesty, no longer cowering before the Nihilism of bigotry or the Commune 
of creed, will assert and maintain, in the fear of God, dominion over the 
aspirations of a world emancipated from the serfdom of superstition, disen- 
tangled, disenchanted, disenthralled from the spell and bondage of mere 
belief, and marching onward and upward, with the mighty stride of a giant, 
to the achievement of that sublime destiny whose radiant glories no mind 
can conceive, whose unimagined beauty no fancy can portray. 

The acquisition of knowledge has been, from the very foundation of 
society, the ambition of every exalted mind, but at no period of the 
world's history was the love of learning so widespread and omnipresent, 
so potent as factors in the formation of individual and national character, 
5.0 lavish in the dispensation of its charms and blessings, as that which 
chronicled the growth and maturity of the Athenian and Roman literatures, 
"par nobile fratrum" of antiquity. 

I have sometimes imagined, in the contemplation of these exhaustless 
reservoirs of human thought, where, for centuries and centuries, the 
grateful nations of the earth have slaked their thirst, that the chief reason 
for awarding the palm of superiority to the Hellenic over the Roman 
intellect was not so much on account of any radical difference in the 
structure or subtility of the two as on account of the unsurpassed brilliancy 



92 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

of the language in which the former robed its creations. It was Cicero, 
I believe, who said that if the gods of Olympus would condescend to 
commit their divine conceptions to human speech, they would converse in 
Greek. Certain it is that the Greek of the Platonic era is the perfection of 
language, and Grecian literature is immortal scarcely more by reason of 
the marvelous genius of its founders than by reason of the radiant beauty 
of the forms through which it has been articulated to modem times; a 
language superbly equipped for the royal decoration of thought, richly 
jewelled with gorgeous imagery, unrivalled in technology, burning with 
passion, melting with pathos, aglow with the scintillations of reason, glit- 
tering with the frost-work of fancy, teeming with every variety of invective, 
blooming with every flower of rhetoric and vocal with melody, chaste 
and graceful, flexile and flowing, exquisitely fashioned and adapted to thd 
needs of poetry and philosophy, of science and oratory, a fit sarcophagus 
for the mighty thoughts of dead centuries, a glorious mausoleum, wherein 
have been embalmed ,with more than Egyptian art or Artemesian cunning, 
the splendid achievements of that vanished age ! 

We boast of our superior civilization, the chief glory of which is 
invention, whose two-fold mission seems to be the ceaseless creation of 
artificial wants and 'the infinite production of the means of their gratifi- 
cation. But in all the loftier elements of life, in the realm of intellectual 
being, in all those subtle constituents that go to make up the majesty of 
manhood, the stateliness of character, the glory of the ancients shines out 
like a luminous star in the light of the past, whose corruscations are 
undimmed even by the electric splendors of to-day. 

In architecture, in sculpture, in poetry, in painting, in eloquence, in 
military genius, in statescraft, in all the speculative and in many of the 
practical sciences, these people were our masters. What oratory of the 
last nineteen centuries has equaled that marvelous mesmerism of action, 
that wondrous witchery of words, which burst like a storm upon the 
sea of upturned faces in the shadow of the Acropolis — 

"Wielded at will that fierce democratie. 
Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece 
To Macedon and Art?axerxes' throne." 

That voice whose sublime music fell upon the enraptured ear like the 
intonations of fate ; that eye before whose God-like gaze bewildered multi- 
tudes quailed as though smitten by a glance of destiny! What poet has 
scaled the heights of Helicon and torn the crown from Homer's brow — 
that mighty monarch of the epic verse, whose reign began eight centuries 
before the dawn of the Christian era, and, with no heir presumptive or 
apparent to his throne, has survived the mutations of time, the downfall 
of States, the wreck of systems, the fierce rivalry of ages, and seems des- 
tined to mock for all the coming years the vain power of chance and change 
and death ? 

What engineering skill can construct the Egyptian Pyramids, who 
duplicate the Egyptian Sphynx — those majestic monuments of antique 
art in whose awe-inspiring presence even the recondite scholarship of to-day 
is mute, baffled in its vain endeavors to extort from the unresponding stone 
the story of their birth, the meaning of their existence, wandering hope- 
lessly and helplessly through the mazes of conjecture, ,R:uessing whether 
they were built as astronomical observatories or as memorials of a universal 
system of weights and measures, or as illustrative of the geometrical and 



WILBUR F. BROWDER. 93 

mathematical systems of ancient Egypt, or as the sepulchre of kings. Of 
what service were they to the toiling millions whose labor and treasure 
were exhausted in their erection? What good was accomplished by their 
construction? I know not, nor do I know why Nature gave the world 
its cataract of Niagara or its Norwegian solitudes. There they stand, the 
imperishable relics of a once highly civilized race, bearing the same 
relation to the power of man, to the mastery of mind, as the Himalaya 
Mountains bear to the power of Nature, to the mastery of God. 

Where is our Phidias, our Praxiteles, beneath the stroke of whose deft 
chisel the conscious marble sprang to life as if beneath the touch of an 
enchanter's wand? But why multiply examples? The great truth stares 
us in the face wherever we may turn ; Caesar had no Waterloo, Alexander 
no Sedan. The statesmanship of Pericles, of Solon, of many of the ancient 
consuls and emperors, was founded upon popular education as the safeguard 
of national greatness, as the palladium of national liberty, as the stronghold 
of national existence. Whence came the civilization of that day? What 
were its sources? What necromancy reared from out the chaos of that 
dark age this gilded temple for the delight of the Old World, for the 
wonder and admiration of the new? The answer comes back in two 
simple words — Intellectual freedom! The right to think was the right 
divine. It was the supreme law of the land. This was their Magna 
Charta; this was their Bill of Rights; this was their table of stone. No 
man was measured by what he believed, but by what he knew. No man 
was judged by what he thought, but by what he did. No man was 
condemned for his opinions, but for his conduct. The sanctity of private 
judgment was inviolate as the chastity of their vestal virgins was sacred, 
and every man was the sole custodian of his own conscience. There was 
no inquisition to enforce belief by torture, no Vatican to stifle inquiry by 
artifice, and, better than all this, there was no proscriptive and censorious 
public sentiment, that most powerful and cruel of all human tyrants, to 
sit in solemn judgment upon the opinions and views of the individual. 
Happy people, whose kings were indeed philosophers, and whose philoso- 
phers indeed were kings! 

With what shame and humiliation do we turn from the contemplation 
of this bright picture to cast a hurried glance at the mental and social 
condition of Europe in the Middle Ages; that period of time embracing 
one thousand years, beginning with the conquest of France by Clovis, 
in the year 500, and ending with the invasion of Naples by Charles VIII. 
in the sixteenth century — ^that dreamless, starless night, through which 
humanity groped its way by the dim light of the memory of the past, by 
the faint gleam of hope for the future, that saddest of all sad ages, when 
commerce died upon the seas and perished on the shores, when art was 
banished, when science slept, when eloquence was hushed, when poetry 
hung her harp upon the willows and wept far bitterer tears than ever 
soiled the cheek of Babylonian captive, when statesmanship sank into 
intrigue, when war was organized murder, when diplomacy was deceit, 
when love was lust — that inglorious, ignominious age of fanaticism, false- 
hood and crime, that shameless era of ignorance, vice and penury, standing 
cut in bold relief upon the blackened page of universal history as the foul 
repository of human wretchedness, of human hopelessness, of human 
despair. 

To characterize it fitly would stagger the intellect and sicken the imagi- 
nation. "Let him take who hath the power, let him keep who can," 



94 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

was the only law to which appeal was made. Every man was a monk, a 
bandit or a beggar. The days of chivalry over which the distempered 
fancy of contemporaneous romancists has flung a weird fascination ars 
notable chiefly as the possible inspiration of DeQuincey's unique essay on 
"Murder as one of the fine arts." The domination of ignorance was com- 
plete, embracing in its boundless sweep the palace and the hovel, the 
prince and peasant. Wars were prosecuted, not for the extension of 
empire, not for the vindication of national rights, not for the redress of 
national grievances, not for the establishment of civil liberty, not for the 
dissemination of knowledge, not for the advancement of governmental 
science, not even for the glory of conquest, but to decide which of two 
illiterate and brutal despots should despoil the still more illiterate and 
brutal people, to enforce the nefarious decrees of Roman pontiffs, to execute 
the bloody mandates of papal bulls, to rescue the empty and dismantled 
tomb of Joseph from the grasp of the Arabs, to destroy the indestructible 
right of free thought, to extinguish the inextinguishable right of free 
speech, to enslave the reason and to annihilate all that is noble and God-like 
in manhood. 

The Greek was purely intellectual; the European purely emotional. 
The one was a philosopher, the other a priest. The one labored, the other 
hoped. The one reasoned, the other prayed. Both are dead and vanished 
from the earth, but their works do live after them. Behold the products 
of the two ! The civilization of reason and the civilization of creed ! The 
cne the pride and glory of the Caucasian race, the other a blot and stain 
upon the Caucasian character. The one rising before the rapt vision 
"a thing of beauty and a joy forever," like a new-bom Venus springing 
from the ocean's foam; like a new-born Pallas leaping from the brain of 
the god; a stately marble shaft, of more than Corinthian shapeliness and 
snow, lifting its graceful form to the kissing clouds; upon whose broad 
base the baffled bfllows of the seas shall forever break, upon whose proud 
summit the sunlight of eternal ages shall forever play. 

The other flitting before the affrighted gaze like the gaunt specter of 
famine, like the dread demon of despair, the typical embodiment of the 
genius of pestilence, poverty and plague, floating up before the mind's 
eye like the noxious exhalations of the Dead Sea, dispensing poison, disease 
and death. A sky without a star, a desert without a fountain, a wild waste 
without forest, field or flood! 

But, finally, the revulsion came, came in obedience to the principle 
announced in the outset, came with an earthquake shock that startled the 
recumbent giant of humanity from his long sleep of a thousand years, came 
in the form of that historical phenomenon of the sixteenth century, called 
the Reformation, of which Wycklif and Walden, Luther and Melanchthon 
were the apostles, and Shakespeare and Bacon, Locke and Milton were the 
oracles. The chains of intellectual slavery were relaxed, and the servitude 
of reason saw upon the distant horizon the dawn of its emancipation day. 
The magnificent libraries of the monasteries and the Vatican, which for 
centuries had been mouldering in the dust, artfully locked from the world 
by the craftiest and cruelest priesthood that ever bartered the promises 
of heaven for the promises of gold, were flung open to the hungering and 
thirsting populace. Learning was revived; the broken altars were re- 
established; the pillaged shrines were re-hallowed; books were printed, 
circulated, read ; schools, colleges and universities were founded ; the spread- 
ing wings of transfigured commerce whitened the seas; the hum of 



WILBUR F. BROWDER. 95 

awakened industry gladdened the shores; art came back from its long exile 
and gave its brush to Raphael, its chisel to Cellini 'and both to Michael 
Angelo; eloquence returned to grace the forensic triumphs of Somers, 
and to glorify the parliamentary victories of Hampden ; science arose from 
its hibernal slumber and the bleak winter of its discontent was made 
glorious summer by the genius of Bacon, and Milton's inspired fancy fore- 
told, in deathless song, the second coming of the crucified muse. People 
began to think, began to speak, began to live. The genius of labor began 
its conquest of the genius of creed, and, under the dauntless leadership 
of reason and of right, instinct . with the irresistible principle of human 
development, whose operations I have attempted to illustrate, its triumphant 
march has been signalized by a succession of victories whose trophies are 
the monuments and muniments of the civilization of to-day. In this 
country these hard-won blessings are secured to us and our posterity by 
the constitutional guarantees of the separation of church and State, of 
freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of life, and as far as 
the machinery of the Government can avail, freedom of thought. The 
Constitution of the United States and the Constitutions of the thirty-eight 
States composing the Union are significantly silent upon all questions of 
casuistry, and the plea I make to-night is that the organic law of the 
States and the nation may become in this respect the organic law of society, 
and the people the organic law of the hearth and home, the organic law 
of man's commerce with man. Archimedes once said that he could make 
a lever of sufficient power to hurl the physical world from its axis, if he 
only had a fulcrum to support it; and what he bewailed in mechanics is 
the great desideratum of modem civilization. Intellect is the lever that 
moves the world and liberty of thought the fulcrum without which it is 
as powerless as was the device of the ancient mechanician. 

I believe in the principles of justice, I believe in the ministry of mercy, 
I believe in the gospel of charity, I believe in the nobility of virtue, I 
believe in temperance, in honesty and in labor, but, beyond all these, above 
all these, 'over all these, I believe in the supreme right of the human mind 
to think and to reason upon all questions in all places, at all times, under 
all circumstances, under all conditions. I protest in the name of the great 
principle of human progress to which I have spoken, against all dogmas, 
doctrines and systems which deny or abridge 'or in any way curtail this 
divinely-endowed right, against that spirit of intolerance which has always 
baptized the first creations of science in the blood of mart3Tdom, which sent 
Galileo to the dungeon because he interpreted the heavens according to 
the will -of the Creator and not according to the astronomy of Joshua and 
the ancient church. Intolerance is the monumental crime of the ages, the 
gigantic curse of the centuries, the Pontius Pilate of to-day, consenting to 
the demands of the unreasoning mob for the crucifixion of the God of 
Enlightenment who has come to redeem the world from ignorance and 
vice. 

The mission of civilization, the mission of education is to rescue the 
intellect from the grasp of this giant. The spi^ead of learning is the death 
of bigotry. Then let thought be free. Let it come and go where it listeth. 
Give it the wings of the morning that it may fly to the uttermost parts of 
the earth and, returning, bring back the olive branch of universal knowl- 
edge, of universal peace, of universal happiness. Let it sweep the glittering 
dome above us and unravel the mysteries of new forms of life that mingle 
with the midnight wandering of the stars. Let it descend into the earth 



96 KEl^TUCKT ELOQUENCE. 

beneath us and read the history of creation in the apocalypse of rock and 
rill. We have done much, but much remains to be done. We have trans- 
formed tradition into history. We have dignified the vagaries of astrology 
into the science of astronomy. We have advanced the pretensions of 
alchemy to the science of chemistry. We have subjugated electricity into 
the service of man by which his thoughts are flashed over the world with 
the speed of a comet and his habitation is illuminated with a splendor that 
rivals the glory of the sun. We have encircled the continent with bands 
of steel over which rush the revolving wheels of commerce distributing 
the enormous wealth of nations wherever the tramp of the iron horse is 
heard or the smoke of his nostrils is seen. We have conquered the winds 
and the waves, the storms and the tides, the land and the sea, but we have 
not conquered our prejudices ! 

This, young gentlemen, is one of the problems appealing for solution 
to the courage and scholarship of the age. It is worthy the ambition of 
the loftiest mind, worthy the aspiration of the broadest philanthropy. Out 
of its partial solving has sprung into being the splendid fabric of American 
civilization, the world-wide celebrity of American citizenship, the stately 
structure of American government, and its triumphant mastery will per- 
petuate the ever-expanding glory of the republic, will seal the immortality 
of the union of the States and make them the refuge and abiding place 
for all coming time of a mighty people, whose kings shall be philosophers, 
and whose philosophers shall be kings. 



JOHN YOUNG BROWN. 

[John Young Brown, Governor of Kentucky, 1891-95; born in Hardin 
County, Kentucky, June 28, 1835; died in Henderson, Ky., January 11, 1904; 
graduate of Centre College, 1855; elected to Congress in 1859; again elected 
in 1868, but was refused seat because of political disabilities; Member of 
Congress, 1873-77; elected Governor, 1891.] 

ANDREW JACKSON.— CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT AND 

THE TARIFF. 

A speech delivered in Louisville, on January 8, 1890, at the celebration 
of the battle of New Orleans, La. 

On this day, seventy-five years ago, the battle of New Orleans was 
fought. It was a most important event in American history, and that 
victory was achieved by one of the most remarkable men of this or any 
other age. Years have not dimmed the glory of that day or abated the 
admiration of men for its hero. It speaks well for the cause of American 
liberty that the anniversary should yet be observed. It gives hope of its 
preservation that thousands throughout the land should this day meet to 
do honor to the character and deeds of Andrew Jackson — ^that immortal 
exemplar of American democracy. His name is the synonym of honesty, 
courage, patriotism. No act of his life was selfish. He never encountered 
the opposition of men, savage or civilized, in war or peace, before which 
his heroic soul was awed, or his firm purpose for one instant faltered. He 
was loyal to his friends, ■ but, above everything, with a supreme, self- 
sacrificing and uncompromising passion — he loved his country. From the 
prison pen at Camden to his grave at the Hermitage, "constant as the North- 
ern star," without condition, question or doubt on his part, his whole heart 
was ever devoted to his country. He loved justice, hated oppression, was 
the advocate of equal rights to all and exclusive privileges to none, and in 
every sentiment and principle 'of his nature was an ideal Democrat. The 
bloody imprint of battle was placed upon him, and, before he recovered 
from wounds received, his mother and two brothers were dead — one of the 
latter killed on the field and the other there fatally wounded — and then 
not a drop of his blood flowed in any living creature. Strangely, but 
wisely, the destinies of men are masked. The demure young Corsican 
was fated to seize the eagles of France, to uplift them in victory in many 
battles, to give away the thrones of kings, and then die in exile. Jackson, 
left in pitiful loneliness, under accumulated misfortunes, a moneyless and 
friendless orphan, was all unconscious of the splendid possibilities of his 
nature, but, with high resolve to do his duty, he began his life's work, 
and, through sickness, poverty, calumny, hate and blood, moved, without 
a doubt or halt, onward and upward, to the achievement of an imperish- 
able fame and an enduring place in the grateful affection of his countrymen. 

From the battle of Hanging Rock to the day of his death, he never 
turned his back on any danger, but through all of the circling years of 
trials and sufferings his undaunted step was always forward in the per- 



98 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

formance of what he believed to be his duty. He was thoroughly imbued 
with the true cardinal principles of our Government. He believed it was 
established by and for the people and should be administered for their 
benefit. His sympathies were always with them, his strength came from 
them and his supporters idolized him. He favored equality of burdens 
and benefits. Of privileged classes, partial laws and monopolies of every 
form, he was the sworn enemy. He had none of the classical training of 
schools. He was self-educated, and hence self-reliant. He doubted that 
the world was round, but Jefferson said that the dignity and polish of his 
manners would have graced any royal court of Europe. His natural endow- 
ments were wonderful, and thoroughly grounded as he was in the funda- 
mental principles of our Constitution, he was the very incarnation of 
the genuine faith of the American Democracy. 

"O, good gray head, which all men knew; 
O, iron nerve, to true occasion true; 
O, fallen at length, that tower of strength, 
Which stood four-square to every wind that blew." 

Our Constitutional Government was not fifty years old when he became 
president. It was an experiment. It was here, for the first time in human 
history, that a written Constitution, resting upon the right of all men 
to be free, was established as organic law. It recognized that sovereignty 
was in the people. It was a union of States, with reserved rights, and 
national authority was measured by the written Constitution, unaided by 
prescription and precedent. It was as certain as it was supreme. The legis- 
lative, executive and judicial departments were made co-ordinate and co- 
equal, each with defined powers. The States were independent sover- 
eignties, saving the powers granted to the general Government. There 
were checks and balances in the system and, although involved, it was so 
adjusted as to work harmoniously as a whole. It has some wonderful 
features. The judicial department has power to pass on the constitutionality 
of laws. Before it was so decided here, there was no such precedent, in 
ancient or modem judicial history, warranting the assertion of such a prin- 
ciple. It was a startling proposition to the minds of the British statesmen 
and lawyers that a mere court should assume the prerogative to hold as void 
a law passed by the Legislature and approved by the chief executive. 
There is not to-day in Europe a court with power to pass upon the consti- 
tutionality of a national statute. 

This great power which our court possesses has proven not to be 
dangerous. Properly exercised, it is an insuperable barrier against the 
aggressive passions of political assemblies. But it can be invoked, as has 
been decided, only in a litigated case in determining the rights of parties to 
that case, and until a case has been presented for judicial determination, 
it can not be exercised at all. And, in this connection, it has been decided 
that when no Federal question is involved, the decisions of State courts 
upon the validity of State statutes are final; also that political questions, 
or such as, under our Constitution and laws are of leg:islative discretion, 
are not within the jurisdiction of courts for review. What was said by 
Chief Justice John Marshall ought to be, and, almost without one exception^ 
has been, true of our judiciary, that "the judicial department has no will 
in any case. Judicial power is never exercised to give effect to the will 
of the judge ; always for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the law." 



JOHN YOUNG BROWN. 99 

In Great Britain Parliament is supreme. It can prolong its own exist- 
ence and even change the descent of the crown. England has no written 
Constitution, but what is so regarded has been decided as "merely a map 
of law, consisting partly of statutes and partly of decided cases and accepted 
usages, in conformity with which the Government is carried on from day 
to day, but which is being constantly modified by fresh statutes and cases." 

From 1801, for more than sixty years, our supreme court had but two 
chief justices — Marshall and Taney. They were eminently fitted to perform 
their great tasks by the purity of their character and amplitude of their 
mental powers. They were patriotic, able and just. Their opinions ren- 
dered during that period form the great body of our Constitutional law. 
In these opinions, as on a map, they drew, in lines of living light, the true 
limits of the powers granted by the Constitution. 

During the stretch of these years, although the times were not always 
tranquil, and clouds and tempests came and went, yet the Government 
erected by our fathers remained serene in its majestic strength, a marvel 
of wisdom and an unspeakable beneficence to mankind. May the monu- 
ment of constitutional law, builded by these masters, block by block, of 
granite principles, stand revered until covered with the hoar of ages, a guide 
to unnumbered generations of men and crowned always with the divine 
light of liberty. 

When a man becomes a judge, it by no means makes him infallible, 
and this court, in the just judgment of men, has not always kept within 
the true limits of its authority, but such instances are rare. Even during 
the late war, with few exceptions, this great body was singularly free from 
partisanship, and since then, in the interpretation of the amendments to 
the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress, it has been admirably 
true to its high duties, conservative in its work and adhering to the ancient 
expositions of our organic law. Indeed, it has stood as a mighty rock 
against which the winds and waves of passion have beaten in vain and in 
its shadow have been found the security and repose of the people. It 
deserves the admiration and veneration of all good men as one of the 
chief glories of our "indestructible Union of indestructible States." 

The changes have been panoramic and in every direction have been 
pushed the conquests of a high civilization. And yet, under a Constitution 
so perfect in its provisions, and in the fullness of such natural strength, 
we find among our sixty-five millions of people widespread discontent. It 
is not without an all-sufficient cause. Prosperity is not diffused, it is not 
general, but limited. The agricultural and working classes are suffering, 
and the accumulation of wealth is confined to a small proportion of our 
people. Under the existing system of our laws, millions have accumulated 
in the national treasury, and this is an encouragement to extravagance. 
Although crops have been abundant, prices are not remunerative to the 
farmer, and it is yearly taking more than he can make to pay the expenses 
of living. Vicious laws which discriminate against him and favor the 
manufacturing classes have produced this result. Nearly sixty years ago, 
Andrew Jackson, in a message to Congress^ used this language : "Distinc- 
tion in society will always exist under any just government. Equality of 
talents, of education or of wealth can not be produced by human institu- 
tions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of heaven and the fruits of 
superior industry, economy and virtue, every man is equally entitled to 
the protection of the law. But when the laws undertake to add to these 
natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities 



100 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more 
powerful, the humble members of society, the farmers, merchants and 
laborers, who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favorS 
to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Govern- 
ment. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal 
protection, and, as the heaven does its rain, shower its favors alike upon 
the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified 
blessing." 

These are noble and immortal words. Having uttered them, he, like 
Hercules, then turned and slew a dragon of monopoly. Reflecting the 
teachings of Jeflferson, they expressed the principles of this mighty leader 
of the Democratic party, and it was for bravely holding a faith like this 
and proving his faith by his works that he was grappled to the hearts of 
the people with "hooks of steel." They worshipped him as their friend 
and champion. And from Jackson to Cleveland our great national party 
has clung to these doctrines. It has never been the creator or apologist 
of a monopoly. What is it that has given this political organization its 
wonderful vitality ? What unfailing springs and sources of life have made 
it indestructible, if not its unwavering adherence to such sentiments of truth 
and republican liberty as are expressed in the extract I have quoted? It 
has outlived all of the old parties, and in the last national contest, though 
losing the presidency, it marshaled a majority of one hundred thousand 
of the unbciught votes of the American people in favor of its candidate. 
It has suffered many defeats, it has withstood many storms, but neither 
these, nor war, nor pestilence have abated one jot of its courage, for its 
cause is the cause of the people, and its battle is for equality of rights and 
exclusive favors to none. The blacks have been emancipated from servi- 
tude, and now the white sons of toil should be liberated from a bondage 
in which they are despoiled of their hard earnings by the remorseless exac- 
tions of their legalized task-masters. Those laws should be changed that 
sap their strength and rob them of their gains. 

Now, let me speak but a few words on the tariiT. Every duty on 
imported merchandise gives to the domestic manufacturer an advantage 
equal to that duty. The duty is a tax, exacted from the consumer for the 
benefit of the manufacturer, and to the extent that it is levied beyond the 
needs of the Government, economically administered, it is spoliation of 
the means of the citizen. It is practically a tribute extorted from labor 
for the benefit of protected capital. Protected articles produced in this 
country are increased in price neariy to the extent of the duty. Grim sta- 
tistics show that for every dollar of revenue the system realizes to the 
Government, four dollars are put in the pockets of the protected classes. 
Four-fifths of our exports are agricultural products for which there is no 
demand at home, and they must be sold abroad in markets where they 
come in competition with the products of all other countries. They can 
not be exchanged for the cheap wares and merchandise found there, because 
their importation is taxed here. Less than three millions of laborers are 
engaged in manufacturing, and yet, under the false plea of increasing the 
wages of workingmen, the remainder of the population is taxed under the 
vicious system of protection. The percentage of increase of the corporate 
wealth of the country is startling when compared to the statistics relating 
to the agricultural classes. The policy of legislation for nearly thirty years 
has been used unmercifully for private profit, and upon the working classes 
the exactions are heaviest. 



JOHN TOUNG BROWN. 101 

I have recently read the astounding statement that the concentration of 
wealth in this country is greater than it is in Great Britain; that two 
hundred and fifty thousand persons to-day practically own the country; 
and that in thirty years, under the present method of taxation, less than 
fifty thousand persons will substantially own it. This may be an exagger- 
ation, but the extent of the accumulation of great fortunes during the 
last quarter of a century has been incredible. The historian records a 
similar condition of the reign of Marcus Aurelius, when Rome was in the 
zenith of its glory. 

Not only are the people the victims of the multiplied iniquities of the 
tariff, but they are robbed by syndicates 'or trusts, which are conspiracies 
of capitalists formed to increase the prices of very many of the necessaries 
of life. Their greed is not satisfied with the profits yielded by protected 
industries, but they combine to extort more. The woodman on the hills 
the plowman in the fields and the artisan in shop and factory, pausing 
in their labors and pondering, must often ask themselves why it is that 
their burdens grow heavier year by year and that the expenses of living 
consume all that they can make, and often more. Their wrongs should 
be righted, and they will be. 

And now, in conclusion, I again salute the memory of Andrew Jackson. 
If the dead have knowledge of the affairs of the earth, then will the spirit 
of this great chieftain of the people lean over the battlements 'of heaven 
to bless the cause of reform. Successive generations of men come and 
go, and few leave behind them any memories of their existence. The 
lives of most of us will be 

"Like the prints which feet 

Have left on Tampa's desert sand; 
Soon as the rising tide shall beat 
All trace will vanish from the strand." 

But Jackson's name is a pyramid of strength and glory. The recollec- 
tion of his achievements are solace to age and an inspiration to youth. 
The example of his patriotism is a precious legacy to his countrymen, and 
the nerve with which he asserted his convictions a lesson to those who fear 
to act, although conscious of right. 

And I salute also Dur noble State, which we all love more deariy than 
Scottish Highlander does his native hills. Grave of heroes, land of brave 
manhood, beautiful womanhood and abounding hospitality — fairest of all 
the sisters of the republic — may liberty, peace, happiness and plenty be 
with you forevermore. 



LEWIS WILLIAM BURTON. 

[Rt. kev. Lewis William Burton, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Lex- 
ington, Ky., was born in Cleveland, Ohio, November 9, 1852; graduate from 
Kenyon College and from Philadelphia Divinity School. Degree of D. D. 
from Kenyon College and from the University of the South. Former Rector 
All Saints and St. Mark's, Cleveland, Ohio; St. John's, Richmond, Va., and 
St. Andrew's, Louisville, Ky.] 

WHAT THE SUN IS TO THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM AND 
THROUGH THAT KINGDOM IS TO US. 

A sermon delivered in the Cathedral, St. Louis, Mo., May 14, 1905 — 
The Annual Flower Sermon, as provided for in the will of Henry Shaw, 
Founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 

"The precious fruits brought forth by the sun." — Deuteronomy 33:14. 

"Ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord; walk as children 
of light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and 
truth) ... and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of 
darkness." — Ephesians 5:8-11, Revised Version. 

The preciousness of the fruits of the sun is set before us in 
marvelous figures by the Honorable Secretary of Agriculture in his report 
for 1904. He declares that the total net value of all products of the farm — 
including, I suppose, stock fed on produce and used in production — ^is 
nearly five billions of dollars; and that in two years the farmers of this 
country have produced as great a wealth as have all the gold mines 
of the entire world in four hundred years. 

Our literature, sacred and secular, is witness to the association in the 
popular mind between the sun in the heavens and the crops of the earth. 
Longfellow, in his Evangeline, quotes an Acadian legend when he says of 
the sunshine of St. Eulalie, that 

"That was the sunshine which, as the farmers believed, would load their 
orchards with apples." 

Such, then, from the financial standpoint, is the preciousness of the 
fruits of the golden sunshine which the Father of Lights showers daily 
upon our fair and fertile land. 

It should be interesting from a materialistic and utilitarian point "of 
view to know the process by which sunshine is transmuted into gold. 
But I should not be fulfilling the purpose of the generous founder of 
this course of annual sermons if I did not so treat my subject as to glorify 
the Creator and derive from my theme practical spiritual lessons for this 
congregation. 

I propose to state as well as one who is not a botanist can what the 
sun is to the vegetable kingdom and through that kingdom is to us. My 
acknowledgments are chiefly due to the head professor of botany in the 
University of Chicago, Dr. John M. Coulter, for the help in the preparation 



LEWIS WILLIAM BURTON. 108 

of this sermon which I have had from his works on plants and plant 
structures. I owe it to him to commend these books as interesting and 
enlightening, and I have studiously sought information upon the subject 
from as many other sources as possible, both by reading and correspond- 
ence. 

Observe the general effort on the part of members of the vegetable 
kingdom to get into the most favorable relations to the sun as the source 
of light. The botanists find a substantial truth in the poetic sentiment of 
Tom Moore's Irish melody : 

"The sunflower turns on her god when he sets 
The same look which she turned when he rose." 

When susceptible of movement at all and circumstances call for it, 
a plant will temporarily bend its stem and turn its leaves toward the 
light. An experiment on the domestic window-sill will verify this state- 
ment. If a vine is trained on a trellis, the plant stem will twist, the leaf- 
stalk will lengthen, the leaf-blade will bend on its stalk — all in the instinc- 
tive process of quickly readjusting itself to the best light relation, of 
throwing up into the sunlight that portion of its foliage which was turned 
down underneath its own shadow. This assertion of the plant's supreme 
need began with the bursting of the embryonic leaves upward through 
the soil into the light. It furnishes the reason why immense seaweeds, 
having anchored themselves at a depth of hundreds of feet, will send their 
working bodies up toward the surface of the sea, furnished with air bladders, 
so as to utilize permanently the necessary light. Trees in a forest will 
grow tall and slender in the struggle with their competitors to lift their 
heads up into the sunlight. The Forester of the United States says that 
no tree can live to old age unless it is altogether unshaded from above. 
The trunks of trees in the interior of dense forests are barren, because the 
lower branches have not been able to survive the death and decay that 
follow upon a total deprivation of light. And the timber of a pasture-grown 
oak brings a higher price in the navy yards than that of any giant of the 
forests, because unimpeded sunlight has made its fiber more elastic, 
stronger and more enduring. 

Let us picture to ourselves a plant. The upright stem; the conical 
shape of the general body of the plant in which the lower leaf stalks are 
the longest and bend downward, the middle ones are shorter and hori- 
zontal, the upper ones very short and directed upward; the arrangement 
of the leaf-stalks of the plant in vertical rows that alternate with one 
another around the stem, so as to throw the leaf-stalks out in all directions 
with the greatest amount of space possible between them ; the lobing and 
division of the leaves so that the light will filter through below, and into 
the interior of the plant; the expanse of the leafs surface in contrast 
with its extreme thinness; the hanging of the leaf so as to receive the 
rays of the sun at right angles; and, finally, the mosaic-like fitting of the 
leaves to each other, even filling the interstices with leaves smaller than 
the usual size — all is with view to the largest amount and most favorable 
kind of exposure to the light. And what this exposed space amounts to is 
so astonishing as almost to make us doubt the correctness of the figures. 
Dr. George Dana Boardman, in his Lectures on the Creative Week, asserts 
of the Washington elm at Cambridge that its average annual production of 
leaves is to the number of seven hundred millions, and that, in these 



104 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

special organs for the utilization of light, that tree has an exposure of 
200,000 square feet, equivalent to four and one-half acres. The plant and 
the light having been thus brought into proper relations to each other, 
they become co-partners in an important and exclusive work. 

Caught in the meshes 'of the finely-veined leaves are tiny granules of 
the living substance known as protoplasm — ^that which Huxley called 
''the physical basis of life." These granules are colored green by a resin- 
like pigment called chlorophyll. Protoplasm consists of familiar chemical 
elements. But no animal can directly combine them into protoplasm. 
The Creator has entrusted to the green-colored protoplasm of vegetable 
tissues, when energized by light, the monopoly of that manufacture. The 
green chlorophyll seems to be the agent by which the protoplasm is made 
responsive to light. Thus acted upon by both the green chlorophyll and 
by the light, protoplasm has the unique power of producing more proto- 
plasm. It does it by breaking up the carbonic acid gas which it receives 
from the air and decomposing the water which it receives through the 
roots and combining portions of their constituents into starch. To this it 
adds mineral salts which have come to it from the soil dissolved in the 
water sucked up through the roots. Digesting the insoluble starch into 
soluble sugar, the plant sends the latter to those parts of its organism 
in which protoplasm is being expended in energy, or where growth or 
reproductiveness are to be obtained by the addition of new cells. Recon- 
verting into starch all that can not be immediately utilized, the plant stores 
up this surplus in its own purpose for its future ^ use, but in the purpose of 
the God of Nature for the use of man and other animals. It is to this same 
storing process carried on in the carboniferous age that we owe our 
supplies of coal. George Stephenson, perfecter of the locomotive, was 
accustomed to declare that the coal which drove his engines was the light 
of the sun bottled up in the earth for tens of thousands of years, now 
liberated and made to work for great human purposes. 

This process of food manufacture is called photosynthesis exactly be- 
cause in the combination of starch light is the prime essential. In other 
words, all life depends on photosynthesis. Scientists state that the sub- 
stance of the bodies of all animals was originally produced in the 
chlorophyll-colored protoplasmic cells of plants, under the energizing influ- 
ence of light. They assert that there is no other process known by which 
inorganic material can be organized. So absolutely dependent upon light, 
is the process that leaves grown in the dark do not develop chlorophyll, 
as is indicated by their not becoming green; and that leaves deprived of 
light lose their chlorophyll, as is manifested in their turning white. Photo- 
synthesis is a process of construction. Where, because of lack of 
chlorophyll, plants can not utilize the light in constructive processes, they 
become destroyers of organic material; they allay themselves with the 
bacteria and fungi which attack and decompose all organic matter withiii 
their reach. 

Incidentally, by the process just described, the sunlight benefits the 
world in two other ways. Carbonic acid gas is absorbed into the plant; 
oxygen is liberated into the atmosphere. Carbonic acid gas is the^ waste 
and deleterious product of the consumption of fuel and of respiration by 
the animal kingdom. Oxygen vitalizes the air for respiration by man 
and his fellow animals, and, indeed, for the breathing process of the 
vegetable kingdom itself. And the growth of woody fiber, which is one-half 
carbon, is evidence that, at least during daylight, more carbonic acid gas 



LEWIS WILLIAM BURTON. 105 

is absorbed by the plant in its feeding than is emittpd by the plant in its 
breathing. 

The other incidental benefit to the world from the process of photo- 
synthesis is the transpiration of water. More water is required for the 
conveyance to the leaves of mineral salts from the soil than can be 
utilized by the plant in its manufacturing processes. In ridding itself of 
the surplus, so much water is transpired by the plant as appreciably to 
affect the climate. Partly on this account, Mr. Gifford Pinchot, forester of 
the United States Agricultural Department, has said of the forests that, 
"perhaps, no other natural agent has done so much for the human race." 
To illustrate this fact, Professor Coulter says that a single average oak 
tree, within the five months of its summer activity, will have exhaled 
28,000 gallons of water. There are some thirteen million tiny mouths, 
chiefly on the under side, of each mature leaf of an ordinary sunflower, 
These are open in the daylight. From these stomata a sunflower plant, 
if as high as a man, will, on a warm day, evaporate into the atmosphere 
one quart of water. 

It is the misfortune of our city trees that photosynthesis can be carried 
on by artificial light. Of the row before my home, that maple which 
is immediately opposite the arc-light is dwarfed and of a sickly hue. It 
has no rest; perhaps we may say, scientifically, no sleep. 

The production of vegetation was the work of the second part of 
the third creative day. It was not till the fourth period that the sun 
became visible in the heavens. Meanwhile the chemical changes and 
molecular activity involved in the development of the earth according to 
the nebular hypothesis was producing an intense cosmical light — probably 
of electricity — abundantly sufficient to account for and sustain the type of 
vegetation then prevailing. I believe that the sun came into existence in 
obedience to the summons, "Let there be light," but the earth was swathed 
in her own vapors. The conditions can best be comprehended from an 
illustration in Dr. Godet's Biblical Studies: 

"Imagine a greenhouse heated to a high degree, its glass walls blackened 
in such a manner as to intercept the sun's rays and its principal light that 
of an electric flame." The result is described in terms which prove that 
sunlight is God's best provision for photosynthesis. The carboniferous 
flora, which existed at the time referred to, was enormous in size; plants 
now insignificant were then represented by specimens of their species as 
large as modern trees; certain grasses, for example, were then sixty or 
seventy feet high and as thick as a man's body; and vegetation was 
massed into dense jungles and damp forests. But when the veil fell from 
before the majestic orb of day, the light that radiated from his glorified 
countenance began to work marvels in the vegetable kingdom. A few 
small, dull-colored vessels for ripening seed were the best flowers of the 
carboniferous age. Only eight hundred species of plants, all told, have 
left their impress upon the coal beds. But, under the direct influence of the 
sun, species increased to 100,000 of flowering plants alone. The livid 
green became a background for brilliant hues. Previously vegetation had 
been of a low type of organic development ; now appeared the fruit-bearing 
tree. The vegetable kingdom was, under the agency of the sun, being 
fitted for the advent of animals and of man, their crown and lord. 

But in this connection still another advantage which the unveiled 
sunlight brought to earth must be considered. There had been no climate 
and no seasons. The uniform heat of the vapor-swaddled earth had pro- 



106 KEl^TVCKT ELOQUENCE. 

duced a tropical temperature in all parts of the globe. Now, with the 
clear shining of the sun, the varying angles which the direction of its rays 
made with the earth, arrayed the vegetable kingdom in climatic zones and 
measured off its processes by seasons, with all attendant advantages of 
variety and alternation as these aflfected the development of man and the 
conditions of his life. 

Emerson, in his Essay on Nature, declares that ''Light is the first of 
painters." That we owe to it the total effect of color in Nature is one of 
the simplest facts of experience, as the sunlight is reflected in enchanting 
hues from the intermingled shades of green in the woodland, from the 
grassy lawns where the clouds' shadows intensify the vivid eflfects of the 
verdure and from the bunches of blossoms that contrast their brilliance 
with the grey rocks about which they cluster. The great dramatist of 
human nature was not blind to the beauties of Mother Nature herself, 
under whose auspices 

"The glorious sun 

plays the alchymist; 

Turning, with splendor of his precious eye, 
The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold." 

With a bold flight of fancy, the 'Professor at the Breakfast Table" 
sees in the buttercups and dandelions lying in the grass "sparks that have 
leaped from the kindling sun of summer." And Lowell, mindful of the 
gorgeous autumns of his New England hills, in his Indian Summer 
Reverie, has given expression to the fine thought that 

"The chestnuts, lavish of their long-hid gold, 
To the faint summer, beggared now and old, 
Pour back the sunshine hoarded 'neath her favoring eye." 

But it would seem that there is not merely in the sun's grasp an 
"unrivalled pencil" of light, painting the outer surfaces of the objects over 
which his brush may pass. The very pigments that intrinsically stain 
the lovely petals are of his injection. For, as we have already seen, the 
carboniferous flora, summoned into being before the revelation of the sun 
in the celestial firmament, had no flowers of brilliant hue to relieve the 
monotonous greenness that prevailed through the vegetable kingdom. 
That, therefore, is true in two senses which Tom Moore sang : 

"What would the rose with all her pride be worth. 
Were there no sun to call her brightness forth?" 

All this, then, is what the sun is to the vegetable kingdom and through 
that kingdom is to us. 

In view of these considerations, there will be henceforth to me a fuller 
and richer meaning in the first fiat that ushered in Creation — "Let there 
be light," and in the record that "God saw the light, that it was good." 

Tennyson and a guest were walking in a beautiful garden. The guest 
said : "What do you really think of Jesus Christ ?" After a lengthy pause, 
the then poet laureate pointed to a lovely flower and said, simply : "What 
the sun is to that flower, Jesus Christ is to my soul. He is the Sun of my 
soul." 



LEWIS WILLIAM BURTON. 107 

The study we have made together this morning of jhe necessity of light 
to the vegetable kingdom has made us capable of seeing new depths of 
significance in what St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, saying: "Ye were 
once darkness, but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light 
(for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth) 
. . . and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness." 

Darkness has its works, but those very works are fruitless in the sense 
of lacking vital spontaneity and in that of being worse than useless. They 
are essentially destructive works, as we have seen is the case with the 
activities of plants that are not subject to the operation of light. 

It was in fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy concerning the arising of 
the Sun 'of Righteousness that Jesus declared: *'I am the light of the 
world; he that foUoweth Me . . . shall have the light of life." This 
statement includes the doctrine of St. John that in the Logos was life 
and the life was the light of men. We have learned about the dependence 
of the vegetable kingdom upon solar light, not only for growth and fruit- 
fulness, but for existence itself. Nature was so constituted by Him by 
whom all things were made, namely, by the Son of God. Therefore, 
when He said that it was necessary to follow Him in order to have the 
light of life, we are warranted in supposing Him to have meant that He 
was the light essential to spiritual life, the light to live by in the two-fold 
sense of vivifying and illuminating grace. To follow Christ is the same 
thing as to walk as children of the light. It means that the plant, the 
very instinct of whose being, the law of whose growth and usefulness it 
IS to turn towards, to seek after, to make every preparation to secure and 
utilize the utmost of the sunlight, is to be our pattern. We have seen 
how the plant is a child of the light. The likening man to plants and 
trees is a common Scriptural figure. As trees of the Lord's planting, we 
are to be children of the light, in that it shall be the very struggle of our 
existence to stand in life relations of light, and consequent growth and 
fruitfulness, to Him who is the Sun of our soul. Surely, with His ines- 
timable gift of spiritual life, He has included susceptibility to the light 
which streams from Him and power to utilize that light. On the one 
hand, we are to put these appropriate organs into communication with 
the Light of Life and by them transmute His vitalizing grace into the food 
of our own spirits. On the other hand, by these same spiritual organs 
we are to receive into ourselves the fructifying rays that issue from the 
Life that is the light of men and convert them into virtues that will delight 
our fellows with the beauty of holiness, and into the fruit of good works 
that will glorify God and minister to the needs of mankind. 

And if in this age, when the Sun of Righteousness is veiled from our 
eyes, all this is possible, ah ! who shall describe the effect upon the children 
of light when the full glory of Christ shall shine upon them in the 
splendid dawning of the Day of Resurrection ? 

The last words of Goethe were an order to the servant to open the 
shutter to let in more light. "Mehr licht" (more light), that is to be the 
governing principle of those whom God has vouchsafed to make his 
pleasant plants, namely^ to secure the utmost and best relations to Him 
who is the Light of Life. 



ASHER GRAHAM CARUTH. 

[Asher G. Caruth, Lawyer,, Louisville, Ky., was born in Scottsville, Allen 
County, Kentucky, February 7, 1844. Former Attorney School Board, Com- 
monwealth Attorney, Member of Congress, County Judge, etc.] 

GENERAL PARLIAMENTARY LAW. 

A speech delivered in the United States House of Representatives, Feb- 
ruary 12, 1890, the occasion being the debate in Congress on the adoption of 
"Reed's Rules." 

Mr. Speaker: 

It is a great thing tO' be a member of Congress. It is great because 
the position of a representative is the third highest in the system of govern- 
ment we have. Indeed, it is the most important office filled by the direct 
vote of the people. To become a representative in Congress is worthy 
of the ambition and struggle of a lifetime. Many gain it, and many fail 
to attain it. It is intended that a representative in Congress should be 
be something ; otherwise he would have been left out of the Constitution. 

The people of the country suppose, when they read in the Constitution 
about what Congress may do, that a member of a body clothed with such 
powers as are therein enumerated is indeed a person of consequence; and 
in their biennial elections they endeavor to place in the office as their agent 
some 'one able and willing to represent their views, legislate for their 
interests and be watchful of their liberties. In order that all sections 
of the country might be heard, the members of the Lower House are 
selected directly by the people from, the districts of the various States of 
the Union. 

In those various districts how much contention is aroused when great 
efforts are made to reach the position so that they may stand upon this 
floor and voice the wishes and demand the rights of their various con- 
stituencies. The theory is, however much the practice may depart from 
it, that the best and the wisest of the citizens of the country should 
gather at the national capital around the council board. The people, when 
they took their representative out of his office, or out of his store, or his 
factory, or oflF his farm, thought that the Constitution gave him to them 
that he might be heard in the advancement of their interests as the 
promoter of their .welfare. 

He was to be something at Washington, as he had been at home. 
They had heard vaguely that the dome on the top of the Capitol had 
extinguished the ambition and destroyed the budding hopes of thousands 
of aspiring statesmen, but they were not afraid of the result of the trial 
on their particular member. They would trust him. They had heard 
him on the stump, and his eloquence had aroused the enthusiasm of the 
masses, and in the court-house he was a perfect tornado of oratory. 

He would hold his own, dome or no dome. Out in their respective 
districts the people watch their chosen representative with expectant ears 
and confident hearts. They expect his appearance in the House in a blaze 
of glory. They expect him to leap to fame at once. Alas! they are 



ASHER GR^r^AII CARUTH. 109 

doomed to disappointment. Their representative may, be wise, he may be 
eloquent, he may be by inclination and study thoroughly equipped for 
legislative work, but he may lack the opportunity to display his talents 
in any capacity. He may be placed on a committee that never meets, never 
acts, never reports, or he may be incongruously appointed. 

He may be an active man, but never active enough to catch the 
"Speaker's eye." The member soon finds out that, whilst the dome may 
be heavy, it is not as ponderous as the Speaker's form, and its extinguishing 
power not as great as the Speaker's withering gaze. The Constitution 
says that Congress shall legislate,' and intends that the members which 
constitute the law-making body shall have their voice in its legislation. 
But practice has done away with this idea and the Speaker becomes the 
law-maker of the Congress. He ought to be denominated "General 
Legislator." He has been known at this session of the House as "General 
Parliamentary Law." Now, if it was the intention of our fathers who 
framed the Constitution to place such arbitrary power in the hands 
of one man, why go to the trouble to have a House of Representatives 
at all ? Why not elect a Speaker by a direct vote of the country and get 
rid of the necessity of paying salaries, mileage and stationery accounts 
altogether and cover "the contingent fund of the House" into the national 
Treasury instead of paying it out for extra help, printing and the thousand 
and one things for which it is annually expended? The country does 
not know it, but it is a fact that the Speaker, even under the old rules, 
was a mighty power in the land — could make or leave unmade the repu- 
tations of members, and could shape the legislation of the body. His 
will was the law of proceedings, and the work of the day was mapped 
out in the privacy of his room, after a consultation with a few so-called 
leaders, and the rank and file were supposed to blindly follow wherever 
they led. Recognition was a favor — ^not a right — and one might stand 
up until he grew to the floor, and say, "Mr. Speaker" oftener and louder 
than anybody, but, unless the Speaker so willed, he would be unseen and 
unheard forever. Now, I have no cause of personal complaint, for there 
never was a man better treated than I by the wise and impartial Speaker 
of the last House, but this defect did exist in the laws, and I thought could 
be and should be altered, and every man have an equal opportunity upon 
the floor of the House. 

At first I thought that General Parliamentary Law might do well in 
command of the House. I thought I knew the general. I had been 
introduced to him at divers times, at various places — debating societies, 
conventions, and the like — by a man named Gushing, who was supposed 
to know him well. I thought that the principle was that first come first 
served, and "recognition" a mere matter of promptness and voice. I was 
mistaken. "General Parliamentary Law" was a tyrant — a god — ^his will 
was supreme, and he would not see a Democrat on the floor or hear his 
"Mr. Speaker" when he so willed it, although he was evidently there and 
his voice was ringing through the House as loud as the tones of a 
calliope. 

I thought it was some singular defect of vision which enabled the 
Speaker to see and note a Democrat when he was seated in his chair on 
the floor of the House with his mouth shut, and be unable to see him 
when he stood on his feet and was calling attention to himself at the 
height of his voice. It looked to me like he ought to be treated with 



110 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

Mulberry Sellers's eye-water. But I feared that he had the disease so bad 
and was so far gone that he would have to be dosed "externally, internally 
and eternally." I have seen this General Parliamentary Law, acting in 
accordance with this usage, recognize a Republican before he came into 
view above his chair and before the first syllable of "Mr. Speaker" had 
left his lips. 

It puts me in mind of the lieutenant-governor of a Western State 
who, during the session of the Senate, addressing the doorkeeper, said: 
"Send out and hunt up Senator Johnson — he is somewhere about the 
capitol — and tell him that he has been recognized and has the floor." 
Never in any debating society, never in any convention, never in any 
deliberative body that I had ever attended has it been said that it was 
out of order to move an "adjournment" or to "appeal from the decision 
of the chair." Yet "General Parliamentary Law," when he took charge 
of this House, proclaimed this to be the rule. The general was omnipotent, 
but diifered from omnipotence in one respect — he was not the same 
yesterday, to-day and forever. 

Such "antics" did General Parliamentary Law cut and so awfully did 
he behave that I came to the conclusion either that he was drunk or had 
lost his mind since my friend Gushing first introduced me to him years 
ago in a Kentucky debating society. He gave me personal oflfense, too, for 
he voted against my will and miscalled my name and violated the rules 
of pronunciation recognized in my family for over a hundred years with 
as little compunction of conscience as he did the rules of deliberation in this 
House, which had been established for a century, and would not recognize 
me when I arose to a question of privilege, although I addressed him in 
my loudest and clearest tones. The episode reads in the Record: "Mr. 
Caruth. Mr. Speaker " 

At its conclusion I felt like Bret Harte's man at the society who was 
hit in the abdomen. 

"He smiled a sickly smile and curled upon the floor. 
And the subsequent proceedings interested him no more." 

I became anxious to get rid of him or to have him define himself in 
some definite way. So I was a hearty friend of the resolution introduced 
by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Cummings) providing for the 
publication of 2,000 copies of the rules of general parliamentary law, 
which were governing the House. He did not press the motion because 
it was known that the only thing which could be printed was a photo- 
graph of the present Spealcer, and there was not a good negative of him 
in Washington. So I became anxious to have this arbitrary, tyrannical 
general superseded. 

I think some of the other side were ,5:etting tired of this course of 
conduct and would not stand it longer. They wanted a change. They 
wanted "the rules." The Riles came. The majority of the Committee 
on Rules were cogitating, deliberating for weeks how they could best 
rule the House, and through the House rule the country, and they brought 
in the code of rules under consideration. Now, I am afraid, they are 
asking us to "jump out of the frying-pan into the fire." 

They are called rules of proceedings, but they should be denominated 
"Rules to magriify the Speaker, gloify the committees and repress the 
members of Congress." As a member of Congress who wags the tail 



ASHER GRAHAM CARUTH. Ill 

end of the Committee of Expenditures in the Agricultural Department, 
and wrestles with the furious, impatient and greedy 6lair bill confined in 
the Committee on Education, I want to protest against the adoption of 
these rules. I do not want to magnify the Speaker; God knows he is 
big enough now, and great enough, under the old rules; but these rules 
will add to his weight, and size, and importance, and, when they are 
adopted, seated on his throne of power, he can well exclaim : 

'I am Sir Oracle, 
And wlien I ope my lips let no dog bark!" 

Neither do I desire to glorify the committees ; they have power enough 
now. When anything reported by them is under consideration, they 
control the floor on both sides of the question, and your seductive power 
must be great if you get them to yield the floor to you a few minutes, witTi 
strict eye kept on the time-piece, and you must indeed be prominent if 
you would hear the sweet words,."! yield the balance of my time to my 
friend, the gentleman from Kentucky," and yet it may only be five minutes, 
or three minutes, and I have even known it to be as short as half a minute. 

No, I said I do not want to magnify the Speaker. I do not want to 
glorify the committees of the House; but least of all do I desire to repress 
the individual member of Congress. He is little enough here in Washing- 
ton. He may have been somebody at home, but he is less than nobody 
here, unless he has been "indorsed." I pity the new member. He is not 
recognized by the Speaker in the appointment of committees. He can not 
be a chairman. He can not get the floor, nor would he be likely to know 
what to do with it if he did get it. 

But the people at home think he is somebody, and they are scanning 
the newspapers to see what he has done towards immortalizing himself, 
and expect him to do this before he has found out how to come from 
his residence to the House of Representatives, or tell a Capitol car from 
one bound for the Baltimore & Ohio depot, or has fixed in his mind the 
northwest or the northeast, or the southeast or the southwest portions of 
this beautiful and mystifying city, and before he has a chance or half a 
chance, some ambitious individual who wants the seat he has hardly 
warmed by his presence, pronounces him a "stick" and "a complete failure.*' 
Under the old rules he might on Monday rise in his place, under the call 
of States, and present his bill in the sight of the reporters and in view of 
the ladies in the gallery. But, alas, even this is denied him under the 
proposed rules. 

He, too, being faithful in his attendance at his committee meetings, 
might be selected to report some pet measure, and then the people would 
see it telegraphed over the country that he had made this report, and "the 
boys" in his district, gathering at the country stores or waiting their turn 
at mill or barber shop, might talk over the distinction which had been 
conferred upon him and unite in the opinion that he is "the best repre- 
sentative the district ever had;" but, under these proposed rules, he does 
not stand up in the face of the House and the country; he claps his hands 
for a page and has his report shoved in a box. 

Do not these rules indeed repress him? And is it not practically 
treading on a man when he is down? What is a new member to do? 
How is he to "participate" in the deliberations of the House under such 



112 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

rules as are proposed? There is nothing left for him to do but to tread 
his weary way from department to department, write letters, or scatter 
''seeds" with a lavish hand over his district in the hope that they will 
come forth and bear a rich harvest of votes at the fall election. But he 
can ''participate," says the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Butterworth) , by 
drawing his twelve or thirteen dollars a day. But, alas ! as we know to our 
sorrow, he can not always do that, for some renegade Republican from 
the gentleman's State may creep into our confidence, worm his way info 
office and run off with our pay. 

So I am opposed to repressing the individual member. I am opposed 
to the policy which is tending to make him "small by degrees and beauti- 
fully less." I am opposed to these rules which magnify the Speaker, glorify 
the committees and repress the individual member. 1 am in favor of laws 
v/hich give all constituencies, through their representatives, equal advantages 
on this floor — rules which recognize the rights of this large minority, and 
which will not inaugurate in the American Congress — 

. . . "the good (?) old rule, 
. . . the simple plan, 
That they should take who have the power, 
And they should keep who can." 



CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY. 

[Cassius Marcellus Clay, Soldier-Diplomat, was born in Madison County, 
Kentucky, October 19, 1810; died July 22, 1903; studied at Transylvania 
University; graduated from Yale College in 1832; Captain in Mexican War; 
Minister to Russia in 1861-62; appointed Major-General United States Army, 
June, 1862, resigned March 11, 1863; again Minister to Russia 1863-69.] 

THE MAN DIED, BUT HIS MEMORY LIVES. 

An address delivered before the faculty and students of Yale College, at 
Boston, Mass., February 22, 1832, the occasion being the celebration of the 
centennial birthday of George Washington. 

Gentlemen of Yale College : 

Were a stranger to visit this land, in this time of peace and plenty, this 
mildness and tranquility of Nature, and hear, at a distance, the loud peals 
of cannon and the murmurs of assembled multitudes, behold crowds of 
both sexes and every age, moving in anxiety to the churches and places 
of public convocation, in amazement he would exclaim, "What means 
this hurried array! this mighty tumult! What threatened invasion; what 
great political commotion; what impending convulsion of Nature draws 
together thirteen millions of human beings ?" 

Illustrious, departed shade, whom we this day call to memory, this could 
not be ! For from what land shall he come who knows not thy great and 
virtuous deeds? What language shall he speak who has not heard the 
name of Washington ? 

We are assembled to-day, a great and intelligent nation, to offer up 
cur thanks to the Author of our being for the many and signal favors 
bestowed upon us as a people; to give to departed worth our highest appro- 
bation, the voluntary tribute of grateful remembrance; to manifest to 
mankind and our posterity the regard which we entertain for the blessings 
of religious and political freedom, which our gallant ancestors have be- 
queathed us ; to make ourselves better men and better citizens. It is enough 
for one man that thirteen millions of human beings have assembled in 
his name. Any efforts which I might make to color his fame by indulging 
in panegyric would be trifling with the feelings of this assembly, for, from 
the throbbing bosom and brightening eye, I perceive that you have out- 
stripped the slow pace of language and already given way to the grateful 
emotions of the soul. I shall therefore briefly touch upon a few incidents 
of his life and proceed to some other considerations which may not be 
inappropriate to the occasion. It was the good fortune of Washington 
to unite in one personage the far distant and almost incompatible talents 
of the politician and soldier. It would not, I presume, be considered dis- 
respectful to say that this circumstance is the only one which made a 
material distinction between him and some others of his noble compatriots. 
Other men may have conceived as high designs and entertained as exalted 
patriotism, but it was for Washington to conceive and to execute, and 
what he declared with the pen in the cabinet, to conclude with the sword 
in the field. Other men would have been proud of the honor of pre- 

7 



114 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

eminence in either department, but Washington drank deep of the glory of 
each, and was not intoxicated with the draught, for he was subject to 
temptation on a most signal occasion, yet his virtue and patriotism failed 
not in the hour of trial. 

Success has crowned his efforts against a foreign foe. His followers, 
stung with the ingratitude of a preserved country, who refused the poor 
tribute of soldier's wages, were united to him by the strongest ties — the 
sense of common suffering and injustice. Inflammatory letters were 
industriously circulated throughout the army by an insidious enemy. The 
republic, in its very infancy, was about to pass the way of all democracies 
and on the eve of yielding up her dearly-bought liberties to her chieftain. 
Then do we see the grey-headed patriot coming forward in deep and 
sorrowful mood, and hear his faltering voice, entreating them to spare 
themselves — to spare him — what? An ignominious death? No! to spare 
him the titles, the honors, the arbitrary power for which others have deemed 
the risk of life not too dear a sacrifice. Raising the intercepted letters to 
his face while the gathering tear suffused his sight, he uttered those mem- 
orable words, "My eyes have grown dim in the service of my country." 
Where, in the long annals of the reputed sayings of departed sages, shall 
we find the equal of this more than eloquence — this pouring forth of the 
soul ? It was then that tyranny was rebuked, and liberty drew immortal 
inspiration. For selfishness and power were disrobed of their tinsel orna- 
ments, ambition loosed his deadly gasp and liberty and virtue, in union, 
winged their heavenly flight! 

What, then, remains for this occasion? Washington is gone and his 
virtues and his exploits are reserved for mention at other times. The 
effects, my countrymen, the effects! "The man died, but his memory 
lives." How many like the great Emmet have died and left only a name 
to attract our admiration for their virtues, and our regret for their untimely 
fall, to excite to deeds which they would but could not effect ! But what 
has Washington left behind, save the glory of a name? The independent 
mind, the conscious pride, the ennobling principle of the soul — a nation of 
freemen. What did he leave ? He left us to ourselves. This is the sum 
of our liberties, the first principle of government, the power of public 
opinion — public opinion, the only permanent power on earth. When did 
a people flourish like Americans? Yet where, in a time of peace, has more 
use been made with the pen or less with the sword of power? When 
did a religion flourish like the Christian, since they have done away with 
intolerance? Since men have come to believe and know that physical 
force can not affect the immortal part, and that religion is between the 
conscience and the Creator only. He of 622, who with the sword propa- 
gated his doctrines throughout Arabia and the greater part of the bar- 
barian world, against the power of whose tenets the physical force of 
all Christendom was opposed in vain, under the effective operations of 
freedom of opinion, is fast passing the way of all error. 

Napoleon, the contemporary of our Washington, is fast dying away 
from the lips of men. He who shook the whole civilized earth, who, in 
an age of knowledge and concert amoung nations, held the world at bay, 
at whose exploits the imagination becomes bewildered, who, on the eve 
of his glory, was honored with the pathetic appellation of "the last, lone 
captive of milions in war," even he is now known only in history. The 
vast empire was fast crumbling to ruins whilst he yet held the sword. He 



C1S8IU8 MARCELTjUS CLAY. 116 

passed away and left "no successor" there. The unhallowed light which 
obscured is gone, but brightly beams yet the name of Washington ! 

This freedom of opinion which has done so much for the political and 
religious liberty of America has not been confined to this continent. People 
of other countries begin to inquire, to examine and to reason for them- 
selves. Error has fled before it and the most inveterate prejudices are 
dissolved and gone. Such unlimited remedy has, in some cases, indeed 
apparently proved injurious, but the evil is to be attributed to the pecu- 
liarity of the attendant circumstances or the ill-times application. Let us 
not force our tenets upon foreigners, for, if we subject opinion to coercion, 
who shall be our inquisitors? No, let us do as we have done, as we are 
now doing, and then call upon the nations to examine, to scrutinize and 
to condemn! No! they can not look upon America to-day and pity, for 
the gladdened heart disclaims all woe. They can not look upon her and 
deride, for genius and literature and science are soaring above the high 
places of birth and pageantry. They can not look upon us and defy, for 
the hearts of thirteen millions are warm in virtuous emulation ; their arms 
steeled in the cause of their country. Her productions are wafted to every 
shore; her flag is seen waving in every sea. She has wrested the glorious 
motto from the once queen of the seas and high on our banner, by the 
stars and stripes, is seen : 

"Columbia needs no bulwark. 
No towers along the steep. 
Her march is o'er the mountain wave, 
Her home is on the deep." 

But on this day of freeman's rejoicings, and all this mutual congratu- 
lation, "this feast of the soul, this pure banquet of the heart," does no 
painful reflection rush across the unquiet conscience, no blush of insin- 
cerity suffuse the countenance, where joy and gratitude should hold 
undivided sway ? When we come this day, as one great family, to lay our 
poor offering on the altar, to that God who holds the destinies of nations 
in his hand, are there none afar off, cast down and sorrowful, who dare 
not approach the common altar, who can not put their hands to their 
hearts and say: "Oh, Washington, what art thou to us? Are we not also 
freemen?" 

Then what a mockery is here! Foolish man, lay down thy offering, 
go thy way, become reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer 
thy offering. 

In the language of Thomas Jefferson: "Can the liberties of a nation 
be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds 
of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are 
not to be violated but with His wrath ? Indeed, I tremble for my country 
when I reflect that God is just; that His justice can not sleep forever; that 
a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among pos- 
sible events; that it may become probable by supernatural interference! 
The Almighty has no tribute which can take sides with us in that event." 
And shall these things be? 'Tis fit that he should chide who bears the 
shame. How long, my own, my native land, shall thy exiled sons dare 
to raise their voice only in a land of strangers in behalf of thy best 
interests — ^the cause of reason, religion and humanity? 

But ye philanthropists, if ye so term yourselves— whether real or 



116 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

feigned — 1 care not — leave to ourselves, give opinion full scope, ex- 
amine, scrutinize, condemn, but let us alone. Know ye not yet the human 
heart? It has its afflictions, but it has its jealousies and its revenge, too. 
But if you attempt to snatch justice from our arms — our destined bride, 
lovely maid of every perfection — we will plunge the assassin's dagger to 
her dagger, to be mourned by her followers as well as by her destroyers! 

"Leave us to ourselves" should be the motto of our republic, the first 
principle of national legislation. Not license to lawlessness and crime; 
not that liberty which is so often shouted forth without meaning — defiance 
of wholesome laws and their severe and rigid execution. But let us alone — 
let us exercise reason and public opinion as regards our temporal interests 
as well as our immortal welfare. 

If we come to honor Washington to-day, to sanction his principles, 
which have been approved in times past, I can not forbear pressing upon 
the minds of my audience, from various parts of the Union, the necessity 
to concede something to public opinion in the construction of our Federal 
league; to be indulgent to one another. If you do not, my countrymen, 
I very much fear that this, the first centennial celebration of the birth of 
Washington, will be the last on which a mighty nation will have met. 

It is a principle generally admitted among politicians that the most 
despotic government in peace is the most efficient in war, and the reverse. 
This principle applied to us admits of much limitations. If we war with 
foreigners, and all united, I venture to say we are the most powerful 
nation on earth, comparing our physical resources, for we war not for a 
change of masters, but for ourselves — for freedom. But if we war with 
each other, which God forbid, we are the weakest nation in existence, 
because we are the farthest removed from executive influence; more sub- 
ject to individual will. Our strength is in public opinion, in unanimity. 
We revolt on the most favorable circumstances. No ignominious death 
of traitors awaits us; defeat, at worst, is but an unwilling marriage with 
a haughty but yet loving lord. States come to the contest, armed, provided, 
unanimous, fighting ostensibly under the banner of the Constitution, if 
not in supposable cases, in the real spirit of our Federal league. 

I would not speak lightly of the Constitution of America; long may it 
exist to the honor of its framers and the greater glory of those who support 
it well, but I should not deem it safe to appeal to the letter -of any copy, 
in defiance of the great original, wriflen in the breast of every American. 

In the political arena the glove is already thrown down; the great 
Northern and Southern champions stand in sullen defiance; bristling crests 
are seen extending to the extreme verge of the lists; the mystery of 
intense feeling pervades the hosts; "non tumultus, non quies; quale magni 
metus, et magnae irae silentium est." 

My countrymen, this must not be; the issues are too great to depend 
upon the fall of one man. Tis yours — you, the people of the United 
States— to look well to it ! 

The warning voice of Cassandra is abroad ! May not a blinded people 
rest secure in disbelief and derision till the birth-right left us by our 
Washington is lost, till we shall be aroused by the rushing ruins of a once 
"glorious Union!" 



HENRY CLAY. 



[Henry Clay was born in the "Slashes" in Hanover County, Va., April 12, 
1777. Having become an orphan at an early age, his educational advantages 
were very meagre, and what learning he did possess he acquired by reading. 
Came to Lexington, Ky., in 1797, .and began the practice of Law. Married 
Lucretia Hart in 1799. Elected to the Kentucky Legislature in 1803 and 1807. 
In 1806 elected United States Senator to serve unexpired terms of one and 
two years respectively. In 1811 and 1814 elected a member of Congress and 
was Speaker of the House both sessions; resigned January 19, 1814, to serve 
as a member of a commission to negotiate peace with Great Britain; the 
treaty having been signed December 24, 1814, he returned to the United 
States and was again sent to Congress and became speaker, again in 1817, 
1819 and 1823. Was an unsuccessful candidate for President in 1824, 1832 
and 1844. Secretary of State in President John Quincy Adam's Cabinet 1825. 
Elected to United States Senate in 18'31. Retired to private life March 31, 
1842. Again elected to the United States Senate in December, 1848. Died 
in Washington, D. C, June 29, 1852.] 

DICTATORS IN AMERICAN POLITICS. 

Delivered in the United States Senate on the Poindexter Resolution, 
April 30, 1834 — Denouncing Andrew Jackson. 

Never, Mr. President, have I known or read of an administration which 
expires with so much agony, and so little composure and resignation, as 
that which now, unfortunately, has the control of public affairs in the 
country. It exhibits a state of mind feverish, fretful and fidgety, bounding 
recklessly from one desperate expedient to another, without any sober or 
settled purpose. Ever since the dog days of last summer, it has been 
making a succession of the most extravagant plunges, of which the extra- 
ordinary Cabinet paper, a sort of appeal from dissenting Cabinet to the 
people, was the first, and the protest a direct appeal from the Senate to the 
people, is the last and the worst. 

A new philosophy has sprung up within a few years past called 
phrenology. There is, I believe, something in it, but not quite as much 
as its ardent followers proclaim. According to its doctrines, the leading 
passion, propensity and characteristics of every man are developed in 
his physical conformation, chiefly in the structure of his head. Gall and 
Spurzheim, its founders, or most eminent propagators, being dead, I 
regret that neither of them can examine the head of our illustrious Chief 
Magistrate. But if it could be surveyed by Dr. Caldwell, of Transylvania 
University, I am persuaded that he would find the organ of destructive- 
ness prominently developed. Except an enormous fabric of executive 
power for himself, fhe President has built up nothing, constructed nothing, 
and will leave no enduring monument for his administration. He goes 
for destruction, universal destruction, and it seems to be his greatest 
ambition to efface and obliterate every trace of the wisdom of his predeces- 
sors. He has displayed this remarkable trait throughout his whole life, 
whether in private walks or in the public service. He signally and glori- 
ously exhibited that peculiar organ when contending against the enemies 



118 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

of his country in the battle of New Orleans. For that brilliant exploit no 
one has ever been more ready than myself to award him all due honor. 
At the head of our armies was his appropriate position, and most unfor- 
tunate for his fame was the day when he entered on the career of adminis- 
tration as the chief executive officer. He lives by excitement, perpetual, 
agitating excitement, and would die in a state of perfect repose and tran- 
quility. He has never been without some subject of attack, either in 
individuals, or in masses, or in institutions. I myself have been one of 
his favorites, and I do not know but that 1 have recently recommended 
myself to his special regard. During his administration this has been nis 
constant course. The Indians and Indian policy, internal improvements, 
the colonial trade, the Supreme Court, Congress, the bank, have success- 
ively experienced the attack of his haughty and imperious spirit. And if he 
tramples the bank in the dust, my word for it, we shall see him quickly 
in chase of some new subject of his vengeance. 

This is the genuine spirit of conquerors and of conquest. It is said 
by the biographer of Alexander the Great that, after he had completed 
his Asiatic conquests, he seemed to sigh because there were no more 
worlds for him to subdue; and, finding himself without further employ- 
ment for his valor or arms, he turned within himself to search the means 
to gratify his insatiable thirst for glory. What sort of conquest he achieved 
of himself the same biographer tragically records. 

Already has the President singled out and designated, in the Senate 
of the United States, the new object of his hostile pursuit ; and the protest 
which I am to consider is his declaration of war. What has provoked 
it? The Senate, a component part of Congress of the United States, 
at its last adjournment, left the Treasury of the United States in the safe 
custody of the persons and places assigned by law to keep it. Upon 
reassembling, it found the freasure removed; some of its guardians dis- 
placed; all remaining, brought under the immediate control of the Presi- 
dent's sole will; and the President having free and unobstructed access to 
the public money. The Senate believes that the purse of the nation, by 
the Constitution and laws, entrusted to the exclusive legislative care of 
Congress. It has dared to avow and express the opinion in a resolution 
adopted on the 28th of March last. That resolution was preceded by a 
debate of three months' duration, in the progress of which the able and 
zealous supporters of the executive in the Senate were attentively heard. 
Every argument which their ample resources, or those of the members of 
the executive, could supply was listened to with respect and duly weighed. 
After full deliberation, the Senate expressed its conviction that the executive 
had violated the Constitution and laws. It cautiously refrained, in the 
resolution, from all examination into the motives or intention of the 
executive; it ascribed no bad ones to him; it restricted itself to a simple 
declaration of its solemn belief that the Constitution and laws had been 
violated. This is the extent of the offense of the Senate. This is what 
it has done to excite the executive indignation and to bring upon it the 
infliction of a denunciatory protest. 

The President professes to consider himself as charged by the resolu- 
tion with "the high crime of violating the laws and Constitution of my 
country." He declares that "one of the most important branches of the 
Government, in its official capacity, in a public manner, and by its recorded 
sentence, but without precedent, competent authority, or just cause, declares 



HENRY CLAy. 119 

him guilty of a breach of the laws and Constitution." The protest further 
alleges that such an act as the Constitution describes "constitutes a high 
crime — one of the highest, indeed, which the President can commit — a 
crime which justly exposes to an impeachment by the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and, upon due conviction, to removal from office, and to com- 
plete and immutable disfranchisement prescribed by the Constitution." 
It also asserts: 'The resolution, then, was an impeachment of the Presi- 
dent, and in its passage amounts to a declaration by a majority of the Senate 
that he is guilty of an impeachable offense." The President is also of the 
opinion that, to say the resolution does not expressly allege that the 
assumption of power and authority which it condemns was intentional and 
corrupt, is no answer to the preceding view of its character and effect. 
The act thus condemned necessarily implies volition and design in the 
individual to whom it is imputed, and, being lawful in its character, the 
legal conclusion is that it was prompted by improper motives and com- 
mitted with an unlawful inteiiT. . . . "The President of the United 
States, therefore, has been, by a majority of his constitutional triers, accused 
and found guilty of an impeachable offense." 

But, I would ask, in what tone, temper and spirit does the President 
come to the Senate? As a great State culprit who has been arraigned at 
the bar of justice or sentenced as guilty ? Does he manifest any of those 
compunctious visitings of conscience which a guilty violator of the Consti- 
tution and laws of the land ought to feel? Does he address himself to 
a high court with the respect, to say nothing of humility, which a person 
accused or convicted would naturally feel ? No, no. He comes as if the 
Senate were guilty, as if he were in the judgment seat and the Senate 
stood accused before him. He arraigns the Senate; puts it upon trial; 
condemns it ; he comes as if he felt himself elevated far above the Senate, 
and beyond all reach of the law, surrounded by an unapproachable im- 
punity. He who professes to be an innocent and injured man gravely 
accuses the Senate and modestly asks it to put upon its own record his 
sentence on condemnation! When before did the arraigned or convicted 
party demand of the court which was to try, or had condemned him, to 
enter upon their records a severe denunciation of their own conduct ? The 
President presents himself before the Senate, not in the garb of suffering 
innocence, but in the imperial and royal costume, as a dictator, to rebuke 
a refractory Senate; to command it to record his solemn protest; to 
chastise it for disobedience. 

"The hearts of princes kiss obedience. 
So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits 
They swell, and grow as terrible as storms." 

The President thinks "the resolution of the Senate is wholly unau- 
thorized by the Constitution and derogative of its entire spirit." He pro- 
claims that the passage, recording promulgation of the resolution af- 
fixes guilt and disgrace to the President "in a manner unauthorized by the 
Constitution." "But," says the President, "if the Senate has just cause to 
entertain the belief that the House of Representatives would not impeach 
him, that can not justify the assumption by the Senate of powers not 
conferred by the Constitution." The protest continues: "It is only nec- 
essary to look at the condition in which the Senate and the President have 
been placed by this proceeding to perceive its utter incompatibility with 



120 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

the provisions and the spirit of the Constitution and with the plainest dic- 
tates of humanity and justice. A majority of the Senate assume the 
function which belongs to the House of Representatives and convert them- 
selves into accusers, witnesses, counsel and judges and prejudge the whole 
case." If the House of Representatives shall consider that there is no 
cause of impeachment, and prefer none, ''then will the violation of privilege 
as it respects that house, of justice as it regards the President, and of the 
Constitution as it relate^ to both, be more conspicuous and impressive." 
The Senate is charged with the "unconstitutional power of arraigning and 
censuring the official conduct of the executive." The people, says the 
protest, will be compelled to adopt the conclusion "either that the Chief 
Magistrate was unworthy of their respect, or that the Senate was charge- 
able with calumny and injustice." There can be no doubt which branch 
of this alternative was intended to apply. The President throughout the 
protest labors to prove himself worthy of all respect from the people. 

That the President did not intend to make the journal of the Senate 
a medium of conveying his sentiments to the people is manifest. He knows 
perfectly well how to address them his appeals. And the remarkable fact 
is established by his private secretary that, simultaneously with the trans- 
mission to the Senate of his protest, a duplicate was transmitted to the 
"Globe," his official paper, for publication, and it was forthwith published 
accordingly. For what purpose, then, was it sent there? It is painful to 
avow the belief, but one is compelled to think it was only sent in a spirit 
of insult and defiance. 

The President is not content with vindicating his own rights. He steps 
forward to maintain the privileges of the House of Representatives also. 
Why? Was it to make the House his ally and to excite its indignation 
against the offending Senate? Is not the House perfectly competent to 
sustain its own privileges against every assault? I should like to see, sir, 
a resolution introduced into the House alleging a breach of its privileges 
by a resolution of the Senate, which was intended to maintain unviolated 
the constitutional rights of both Houses in regard to the public purse, 
and to be present at its discussion. 

Is the President scrupulously careful of the memory of the dead or 
the feelings of the living in respect to the violations of the Constitutions? 
If a violation by him implies criminal guilt, a violation by them can not 
be innocent and guiltless. And how has the President treated the memory 
of the immortal Father of his Country, that great man who, for purity 
of purpose and character, wisdom and moderation, unsullied virtue and 
unsurpassed patriotism, is without competition in past history or among 
living men and whose equal we scarcely dare hope will ever be again 
presented as a blessing to mankind? How has he been treated by the 
President? Has he not again and again pronounced that, by approving 
the bill chartering the first Bank of the United States, Washington violated 
the Constitution of his country? That violation, according to the Presi- 
dent, included volition and design, was prompted by improper motives 
and was committed with an .unlawful intent. It was the more excusable 
in Washington because he assisted and presided in the convention which 
formed the Constitution. If it be unjust to arraign, try unheard and con- 
demn as guilty a living man fillins: an exalted office, with all the splendor, 
power and influence which the office possesses, how much more cruel is it 



BENRY CLAY. 



121 



to disturb the sacred and venerable ashes of the illustrious dead, who can 
raise no voice and make no protests against the imputation of high crime" 
What has been the treatment of the President toward that other 
Illustrious man yet spared to us, but who is lingering upon the verge of 
eternity Has he abstained from charging the Father of the ConsSu'ion 
with crmiinal intent in violating the Constitution? Mr. MaSson Uke 
Washington, assisted in the formation of the Constitution, was one of 
Its abkst expounders and advocates and was opposed, on crstitutional 
ground, to the first Bank of the United States. But, yieldL to the force 
of circumstances, and especially to that great principle that the peace and 
stability of human society require that a controverted question which has 
^ti!,.*^"'"^ l'"!^ "^ "".*' departments of Government by 'loTgacqui 
H^T '"^j^^.^u^ P'°P'' themselves, should not be open to pfr^etual 
dspute and disturbance, he approved the bill chartering the present Bank 

,Uht.H"''"^ ^ '*''• . ?^.'" *^ "^""^ °f J=""«s Madison, wh ch is but 
another for punty, patriotism, profound learning and enlightened exneri 
ence can no escape the imputations of his present succ^of ^ 

And lastly, how often has he charged Congress itself with ooen vinia 
n?il'.nf i«- C'^"^«'y«°" ? , T™^^ ^taost without numb^ Durinrthe" 
^u^ui^t^'°\^^ ^^^ ^^"* '" a message, in regard to the land Ml in 
n.wi'th%'''/-"'"'f'* '* ^i* '" "ndisgits^d violftion-a ^olS Spa" 
TcSrina m"' ^r'\ff^'^' and must therefore, neces^ri^. imp y 
l^r- u J ,' *^ advisers of the President, whoever thev ar/ 

fniT*''!'? '"'^ themselves. They have vainly supposed that bvari 
appeal to the people and an exhibition of the wounds of the President thev 
could enlist the sympathies and the commiseration of the Se-th^ 
the name of Andrew Jackson would bear down the Senate and a f^nn 

Moiation ot the Constitution against whomsoever he Dieases anri PYhiWfc 
SSrS" "*' ""' ""'^"""wh™ hi, own hSlS'li SeStt 



/ 



WILLIAM ROGERS CLAY. 

[William Rogers Clay, Lawyer, Lexington, Ky., was born in Fayette 
County, Kentucky, November 9, 1864. Was educated at Kentucky University 
and at Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. City Solicitor, Lexington, 
Ky., 1904-1908.] 

FIFTEEN MINUTES' OUTLOOK. 

An after-dinner speech delivered at Rev. E. L. Powell's Banquet at Louis- 
ville, Ky., January 19, 1906. 

Careful introspection is always necessary to see that our views of 
to-morrow are not controlled by our sickness or failure, our health or 
success, for the world may move forward in spite of our indigestion or 
indigence, and backward in spite of our grape-nuts or greenbacks. And, 
above all things, we should not overlook the influence of the liver, for 
that organ, even when in a state of inactivity, has sufficient power to 
wither the reddest roses of pleasing prospect. 

The real outlook always depends upon true retrospection. By the 
twilight of history we may predict the dawn of to-morrow. 

We all love the past. We love it not only for the joys felt, but 
the agonies endured. Sweet days were those of red-topped boots and sore 
heels, of bare feet and stone bruises, of long swims and longer switches, 
of pumpkin pie and poultices. Dear old days were those when men were 
loved who had never played football, and women were adored in spite 
of hoop-skirts. We shall never cease to be thrilled by the mere recollection 
of the old wooden bath tub. And, oh, the ecstasy of even looking back 
upon the time when cooks cooked for you instead of at you ! 

If we consider not only the past of our own lives, but the past that 
lies beyond them, we shall find that it was the custom of each age to lament 
its own degeneracy and to extol the virtues of the preceding age. We shall 
also find that it was the habit of every -orator to tell the youth of the 
land not to draw their inspiration from the living, but to imitate the lives 
of their ancestors. How long this has continued, no one knows, but if 
Mr. Darwin's theory be correct, I have no doubt it extended back to the 
time of our ape-like ancestors, who persisted in telling the younger apes 
to refrain from their new "monkey shines" and stick to the tricks of their 
fathers. 

In many instances, I find that this praise of the past and imitation of 
ancestral virtues have been due more to a dread of innovation than to 
a desire for improved conditions. There have been times when the 
appearance of a new bonnet, or the wearing of "slash apparel," or the 
possession of "immoderate great breeches," has caused greater consterna- 
tion and direr forbodings than the sight of the Quaker, Mary Dyer, 
marching to the scaffold, under an armed guard of two hundred, led on 
by a minister seventy years old, and, as one historian says, "all the fiercer 
for every year." And, even in our own day, there are many reputable 
citizens who can stand anything but a substitution of the new for the 



WILLIAM ROGERS CLAY. 128 

old. They are not the least wrought up over revelations of bribery ; they 
don't get alarmed when the city treasurer forms an entangling alliance 
with the treasury; they keep cool and collected when they learn that the 
grafter has been working on the village apple tree; but substitute some 
other game for golf, and the foundations of civilization will begin to 
crumble. 

And then, too, it has been the almost universal practice of the man, 
who, in his youth, threw rocks at lamp-posts, "played hookey," tied tin 
cans to dogs' tails, destroyed birds' nests, robbed orchards and stole water- 
melons, to look with utter horror upon the pranks of boys who have 
the temerity to play tick-tack upon his window, and to exclaim with all 
the agony of glorified innocence: "Boys are so bad now, 1 don't know 
what the world's coming to." 

If, therefore, we consider only the testimony of each age as to its 
own degeneracy, we can not escape the conclusion that the world would 
have long since reached a condition of such indescribable wickedness that 
the possession of a single virtue would call for an apology, and every 
life insurance director would be looked upon as the incarnation of perfection. 

But we must not rely upon mere opinions, but study actual conditions, 
or must we grow impatient with the slowness with which the world 
moves. The best remedy for our impatience is a study of the patience of 
God as revealed in the history of the human race. Eternal with Him 
was the sublime idea of preparing this world as a dwelling place for man. 
He could look through the ages to the coming of man. He could watch 
his progress from year to year. He could see his hopes and aspirations, 
his misery and despair. He could picture the arrival of His Son ; He could 
see Him as the babe in the manger; He could watch Him grow into 
manhood; He could see His rejections by the world; He could hear His 
groans upon the cross; He could see the rise of Christianity; He could 
watch its slow but triumphant march; He could see the present with all 
its changes; He could look on through eternity and see the consummation 
of his divine purpose. And yet, never once did He hurry. The human 
mind grows weary and bewildered as it contemplates His wonderful pa- 
tience. Away back in the infinite past the grand work was begun. For 
ages He watched the earth when it was "without form and void;" for 
ages He watched the endless series of cosmical change ; for ages He watched 
the building of islands, the formation of fertile plains, and the upheaval 
and wearing away of majestic mountains; for ages He watched the 
unfolding of organic life and the terrible struggle for existence; for ages 
He watched the variations in the animal world, and awaited the mysterious 
coming of man. Finally the sublime work was completed. Man's home 
was ready for occupation. Man came with certain imperfect guides to work 
out his own destiny. For centuries God bore with him in his weaknesses, 
and then sent him a perfect guide. Nineteen hundred years have sinca 
rolled by, and yet time has just begun. And he who has read this record 
and has learned from it the infinite patience of God has learned the phil- 
osophy of life. He will not expect man to be perfected in a lifetime 
v/hen God has willed that it shall take an eternity. 

In this spirit we should approach the question of man's progress. And 
the question is not how weak and imperfect he is now, but whether he 
is any better than he was in the ages gone by, and whether the indications 
are that he will continue to grow better. To determine this question, 
man must divest himself of his own experiences and prejudices and study 



124 KETTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

the history of the whole human race in all its changes and development. 
He must approach the question with an appreciation of his natural tendency 
to imagine that the absent is better than the present, and he must take 
into consideration the fact that the weaknesses of to-day stand out before 
his eyes, while many of the imperfections of the past lie buried forever 
in its silence. Then the answer is perfectly plain. 

In the intercourse of nations with each other, kindness and friendliness 
have displaced much of the enmity and bitterness of the past. And even 
those nations which fostered cannibalism and all forms of brutality and 
depravity, and to enter whose shores meant death to the white race, 
have thrown wide their gates to welcome the messengers of peace and 
civilization. 

Politically Dur progress has been remarkable. Tribal chiefs, robber 
barons, brutal kings with absolute power, are being replaced by republics 
whose blessings we can scarcely appreciate. Oppression and persecution 
are becoming things of the past. Slavery is fast disappearing from the 
face of the earth, and dungeons and chains are retreating in shame from 
the sweet presence of liberty. Fraud and corruption are less arrogant. 
A hundred and fifty years ago, the pay office of the treasury of England 
was simply a mart for the buying of votes. Nor was the buying restricted 
to bums and ward-heelers, but lords and members of Commons were 
stirred into active support or hushed into silence by the money of the 
crown, and few were brave enough to condemn it. And even in our 
own country many of those m^n around whose names cluster our admira- 
tion and love, and whose lives have come down to us to be forever 
enshrined in our hearts as the embodiment of purity and patriotism, were 
guilty of acts which were scarcely censured then, but, if committed now, 
would be received with universal condemnation and abhorrence. 

Morally and religiously our progress has been equally remarkable. 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are not considered models of virtue in this day. 
The church of the present is far purer than the church of the apostles or 
of any subsequent age. Its individual members are more virtuous and 
more Christ-like. The General Court of Massachusetts no longer thinks 
it convenient, as it did in 1644, that the auditor should send twelve gallons 
of sack and six gallons of white wine, "as a small testimony of the court's 
respect," to the reverend elders at Cambridge. And no longer is it voted 
on occasions of a public funeral, as was done in 1685, that "some person 
be appointed to look after the burning of the wine and the heating of the 
cider," an -office that was eagerly sought after at the time, because there 
were thirty-two gallons of wine and more of cider, to say nothing of one 
hundred and four pounds of that "insnaring accessory," sugar, and the 
graft in the form of tasting privileges was something immense. But even 
that was not sufficient to cause a Puritan elder to look with compassion 
upon his erring sister who had the audacity to commit the horrible and 
atrocious crime of "laying out" her hair. I have no doubt, however, if 
she had "laid out" a Quaker instead of her hair, the old elder's face would 
have been wreathed in smiles. To judge justly the men of the past, we 
must judge them by the sentiment of the time in which they lived. 
Judg:ed by our present standard, heroes become tyrants and Christians 
heathen. The day of martyrs has passed away. Witches are no longer 
burned at the stake. The prejudices between the sects are diminishing. 
As late as 17o5, the bitterness between Quaker and Puritan was so great 
that neither the Quaker nor the Congregationalist church would sanction 



WILLIAM ROGERS CLAT^ 125 

the marriage of a Quaker boy and a Puritan girl. Whereupon the boy 
wrote as follows to his sweetheart : "Ruth, let uS break from this unrea- 
sonable bondage. I will give up my religion, and thou shalt give up 
thine. We will marry and go into the Church of England, and go to the 
devil together." Men and women are still giving up systems of theology, 
not, however, for the same motives that actuated the young Quaker, nor 
with the expectation of the same fate that he believed was in store for him 
and his sweetheart, but because they are seeking for the essence of religion 
and not its forms, because they prefer right living to dogma, because 
they value only that faith which is crystallized into noble service and 
because they have at last awakened to a true appreciation of the God-like 
principle of brotherly love. 

Having devoted all my time to a survey of the past and present, 1 
will now close with a brief reference to my real subject. What, then, is the 
outlook ? 

As I "dip into the future," I see the Army of Civilization marching on, 
led by Intelligence. In its ranks I see Envy and Malice, Cruelty and 
Oppression, Avarice and Selfishness, Corruption and Fraud, commanded by 
Hate. I see Kindness and Good-will, Gentleness and Mercy, Charity and 
Self-denial, Purity and Truth, commanded by Love. Everywhere is insub- 
ordination, insurrection, mutiny, revolt. I see Avarice, with dagger drawn, 
striking at the heart of Charity. I see the foul hands of Corruption 
around the white throat of Purity. I see Malice grappling with Good-will, 
and Falsehood battling with Truth. I hear Hate cheering for Avarice. I 
see Right and Patriotism rushing to the rescue of Purity and Truth. I see 
Timidity and Fear and Indifference making way for the contestants. For 
ages the contest goes on ; sometimes the victory with one, sometimes with 
the other. Then I see Love gathering her cohorts for the mighty struggle. 
I see Malice and Falsehood, Avarice and Corruption yielding to superior 
strength. Slowly but surely they are crushed to the earth. I see them 
shudder as the hand of Death beckons them to follow. I see Love radiant 
and triumphant. I hear the huzzas of untold millions. I behold Intelli- 
gence, with bowed head and bared brow, kneeling at the feet of Love, 
and I hear a voice saying: "To thee we owe the victory." 



ANDREW M. J. COCHRAN. 

[Andrew McConnell J. Cochran, Maysville, Ky., Judge United States Court, 
Eastern District of Kentucky, was born in Maysville, Ky., February 4, 1854.] 

NOT TO THINK OF HIMSELF MORE HIGHLY THAN HE OUGHT 
TO THINK: APOSTLE PAUL. 

An address delivered by Judge Andrew M. J. Cochran, at a banquet given 
in his honor by the lawyers of Covington and Newport, Ky., at the Grand 
Hotel, Cincinnati, Ohio, on the night of October 26, 1901. 

Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen: 

At the outset of what I have to say, I desire to return thanks. Those 
who have spoken here to-night have said many kind things about me. 
I want to thank them for this. I desire further to thank those to whom 
we are indebted for conceiving and providing this splendid entertainment 
and those, also, who have graced it with their presence and enlivened it 
with their brilliant remarks. But, above all, I must avail myself of this 
opportunity, the first I have had, of thanking in mass those who, by what 
they said and what they did in my behalf, were so instrumental in 
enabling me to secure the high position which 1 now hold. 

On the 29th of June last, for the first and only time in my life, I met 
President McKinley at the White House in Washington, where I had called 
to pay my respects and express my deep sense of obligation to him for 
his consideration. 1 hope I violate no confidence in quoting him as saying 
on that occasion that the political influences in Kentucky were largely 
against me, but I was fortunate in that I happened to have the President 
on my side. That attitude on his part toward me and my consequent 
success were largely due to the representations which had been made to 
him concerning me by the memj^ers of the bar and bench in Kentucky, 
in this city, along the southern border of Ohio and elsewhere, and to the 
kind offices of a few personal friends who did have political influence. For 
all that was thus said and done, I now tender my sincerest thanks. 

This is the agreeable side of those representations. They have an- 
other and quite distinct aspect — one that you may never have thought of, 
but one which has given me no slight concern. Indeed, it is a very serious 
view of them to me. They have set a pace with which I shall be expected 
to keep up. They have erected a standard to which I must in some degree 
conform and by which I shall be judged. Notwithstanding this, I have 
determined not to be disheartened, but to view those representations as an 
incentive to the very highest endeavor, and I hope that out of a conscious 
v/eakness and inability to square performance with them will come strength 
to endure and power in some m'easure to meet expectations. 

In view of the very flattering character of what has been done then and 
here said concerning me, and the high and noble sentiments that have been 
expressed in all the responses to the toasts proposed on this occasion, I 
feel that something equally elevated will be expected from me in what 
I may say in answer to your hearty call. Pardon me, therefore, whilst 



ANDREW M'CONNELL J, COCHRAN . 127 

I unbosom myself, as it were, to you and reveal my aspirations in con- 
nection with the work upon which I have entered. - 

You, no doubt, will consider them as quite exalted, and it may be that 
in presenting them to you the impression may be created that the purpose 
in so doing may be to increase your esteem of the speaker. If such a 
thought should creep into the minds of any of you, please look upon their 
intended relation to him as solely that of "self description and not self 
eulogy." And a word or two in justification of such a course. 

It certainly is not improper for one to put a high valuation upon those 
things within his breast of which he is really conscious and which are 
entitled to such valuation. Aristotle has characterized the man who is 
worthy and knows himself to be such as a magnanimous man. There 
is such a thing as magnanimity towards one's self. Paul cautioned every 
man amongst those to whom he addressed his letter to the Romans "not 
to think of himself more highly than he ought to think," which certainly 
implies that he should think of himself as highly as he ought. And Swin- 
burne somewhere speaks of "an excellent arrogance." Besides, no one 
can know one's self as well as he himself does, and others will never 
judge him beyond his own measure. The spies who brought the discour- 
aging report from' the promised land had this to say concerning the giants 
whom they had seen there : 

"And we were in our own sight grasshoppers, and so we were in their 
sight." The giants judged them as they judged themselves. 

And please bear In mind that what is said has relation solely to aspira- 
tions believed to be real after much heart-searching — addressed to those 
whose kind words and deeds lead me to open my heart to them — and not 
to performance. 

In the first place, I would direct your attention to the view of the 
work upon which I have entered, which I would always have in mind. 

The function of those moral heroes of the Hebrew race, the prophets, 
was two-fold — ^to predict future events and to speak the truth as revealed 
to them by God. In modem times emphasis was put upon the latter 
function; in earlier days, it was placed upon the former. This two-fold 
function has been expressed in this way: "There were foretellers and 
forthtellers." 

Now the work of a lawyer is largely that of a prophet in the sense of 
uninspired foretelling of future events. This has been forcibly brought 
out by Professor Holmes, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
Massachusetts, in an article on "The Path of the Law," in the Harvard 
Law Review. His thought and the phraseology in which he has expressed! 
it is largely this. In societies like ours the command of the public force 
is intrusted to judges in certain cases, and the whole power of the State 
will be put forth, if necessary, to carry out their judgment and decrees. 
The law, as contained in the sibylline leaves of reports, text-books and 
statutes is prediction — prediction of the incidence of the public force 
through the instrumentality of the courts. They are prophecies of the past 
of the cases in which the axe will fall. Indeed, the primary rights and 
duties with which jurisprudence busies itself are nothing but prophecies. 
A legal duty is nothing but a prediction that if a man does, or omits to 
do, certain things, he will be made to suffer in this or that way by judgment 
of the court; and so of a legal right. Every new effort of les:ai thought 
is to make these prophecies more precise and to generalize them into a 
thoroughly connected system. To make them easier to be remembered 



128 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

and to be understood, the teachings of the decisions of the past are put 
into general propositions and gathered into text-books, or statutes, and are 
passed in a general form. People want to know under what circumstances 
and how far they run the risk of coming against what is so much stronger 
than themselves, and hence it becomes a business to find out when this 
danger is to be feared. The work of a lawyer, therefore, in advising clients 
is that of interpreting these prophecies to them and, with these oracles 
before him, prophesying what will be the action of the courts if the case 
in hand ever comes before them. As that action will depend upon the 
interpretations which they, and not he, puts upon those prophecies, there 
is a considerable element of uncertainty in his prophesying. For it will 
not do to forget that, practically considered, the law of a given case is 
no mystery, not what you or I may think it to be, but what the judge 
or judges, who have the last word in regard to it, say that it is. This is 
well brought out by an incident that is said to have happened in a Boston 
court. A lawyer was arguing a case before a judge on a certain occasion. 
In the course of his argument, the lawyer stated a certain proposition to 
be the law. The judge interposed and said that it was not the law. The 
lawyer simply responded : "It was until your honor spoke." 

Now, gentlemen, 1 am done prophesying in the sense of predicting 
future events — of foretelling the clients what the courts will decide. 

The view, then, which I would have of the work before me on the 
bench is, that it is the work of a prophet in the sense of speaking the 
uninspired truth — ^forthtelling and not foretelling. It shall be my aim to 
cause it to be understood that my court exists for no other purpose than 
to search for the truth — to ascertain it, and to declare it. I would have 
myself, the juries, every lawyer that appears before me, every witness, 
and every officer of the court, understand that that is the business in which 
it is engaged, and each has its own proper part to perform therein. I 
would have that high ideal pervade the very atmosphere so thoroughly 
as to banish from its sacred precincts everything that is base and false 
and mean. Success in causing this to be felt will not only add to its respect 
and standing, but will lend interest to its labors. No room will there be 
found for a discussion of the old question as to which is the more enjoyable 
pursuit or possession. No occasion will exist for one's saying, as did a 
Frenchman once : "If I had truth in my hand like a bird, I would let it go 
that I might catch it again." There will never be a time that I will not 
be both in possession of truth believed to be ascertained and in pursuit 
of that yet unascertained. 

Again, permit me to indicate the characteristics as a judge that I aspire 
to possess. They can not be better or more forcibly expressed than in the 
words of Moses' charge to the judges of Israel, who were set apart to 
that work at Horeb upon which, when I was sworn into office by Judge 
Lurton, I placed my hand at his request. Openmindedness, as inculcated 
in the words, "Hear the causes between your brethren ;" righteousness, by 
which I mean a disposition to consider nothing but the very right of the 
matter in hand, as brought out in the words, "Judge righteously between 
every man and his brother and the stranger that is with him;" absolute 
freedom from prejudice or partiality, which puts each party on equal terms, 
as contained in the words, "Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but 
ye shall hear the small as well as the great ;" and, lastly, fearless independ- 
ence, as expressed in the words, "Ye shall not fear the face of man." 

And, in conclusion, a word or two as to the spirit with which I feel 



ANDREW M^CONNELL COCHRAN. 129 

that 1 have taken up the work. I can not bettejr point this out than by a 
reference. Professor Adam Sedgwick, a geologist of some fame, was 
appointed to the Woodwardian Professorship of Geology at Cambridge 
when he knew nothing about the subject. His own explanation of it was 
this : "I had but one rival, Gorham of Queens, and he had not the slightest 
chance against me, for I knew absolutely nothing of geology, whereas he 
knew a great deal; but it was all wrong." 

I will not confess either the ignorance of the one, or the error of the 
other, with reference to the matters that will come before me, but 1 have 
persuaded myself to believe that I have entered upon the duties of my 
position in the spirit of Professor Sedgwick, as indicated by these words, 
which he is reported to have used: 

"Hitherto, 1 have never ttimed a stone; henceforth, I will leave no 
stone unturned." 

I hope you will pardon the extreme sentimentality 'of these remarks. It 
has been well said that one can not lift himself by tugging at his waistband. 
If he is to rise at all, he must come under the influence of the drawing 
power of uplifted ideals. 



JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 

[John J. Crittenden, Governor-United States Senator, was born in Wood- 
ford County, Kentucky, September 10, 1787; died near Frankfort, Ky., July 
26, 1863. Graduated at William and Mary College, Virginia, in 1807, and 
entered upon the practice of law; appointed Attorney-General of the Terri- 
tory of Illinois; served a short time in the War of 1812; member of the Ken- 
tucky Legislature, 1816; elected United States Senator in 1817; served three 
years, t^en resigned and moved to Frankfort, Ky., and afterwards served 
several terms in the Legislature; appointed by President Adams United 
States District Attorney in 1827; elected again to the United States Senate 
in 1835; re-elected in 1840, but resigned his seat to accept the appointment of 
Attorney-General in Harrison's Cabinet; in 1842, appointed United States 
Senator on the retirement of Henry Clay; and at the expiration of his term 
was again elected for a full term. He was elected Governor of Kentucky 
in 1848; in 1850, appointed Attorney-General by President Fillmore; in 18'55, 
he was once more elected to the United States Senate, retiring March 4, 
1861. He was elected a member of Congress in 1861, his last speech in 
Congress was delivered February 22, 1863. He was again a candidate for 
Congress, but died before the election. He was considered the most elo- 
quent and able debater of his day.] 

GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

Speech delivered at a special Congressional celebration of Washington's 
birthday, in the House of Representatives, Washington, D. C, February 22, 
1852. In 1852, Kossuth was addressing public assemblies throughout the 
United States with the view of entangling this country with foreign powers, 
and the special Congressional celebration was designed to counteract his 
eloquence. 

Mr. President: 

I regret that in this country, where there are so many others more 
capable, I should have been selected and called upon to respond to the 
toast announcing the Father of his Country as its mighty theme. You 
have met, sir, to commemorate the anniversary of his birth. The occasion 
and the associations by which we are surrounded — here, in the city which 
he founded, at the capital and seat of Government which he established, 
in sight of Mount Vernon, his chosen residence and the sacred sepulchre of 
his remains — ^the occasion and the associations make us feel as though we 
were almost brought into his presence ; at least, his name is here — a name 
which can never die — a living name, before which every head in the civilized 
world is bent in reverence and to which homage of every true American 
heart is due. I almost fear to speak on such a subject. The character of Wash- 
ington has ascended above ordinary language or eulogy. A Caesar, a 
Napoleon, a Cromwell may excite the noisy applause of the world and 
inflame the passions of men by the story of their fields and their fame, 
but the name of Washington occupies a different, a serener, a calmer, a 
more celestial sphere. There is not in his character, and there is not about 
his name, any glory in the vulgar and worldly sense of the term. His name 
has sunk deep into the hearts of mankind, and more especially has it sunk 
into the mind and heart of America, and in that sacred and inner temple 
it will reside without any of the forms of ostentatious idolatry. It resides 



JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 131 

in the inner recesses of the hearts of his countrymen, and, like an oracle, 
is continually whispering lessons of patriotism and virtue. 

He never sought or asked for what men call glory. He sought to serve 
his kind and his country by his beneficence and his virtues, and he found 
in that service and in the performance of his duty that only and that 
richest reward which can recompense the patriot and the statesman. That 
was our Washington — let all the rest of the world present anything like his 
parallel. The verdict of mankind has already assigned to him a pre- 
eminent and solitary grandeur. In him all the virtues seemed to be com-* 
bined in the fairest proportions. The elements were mixed in him and his 
blood and judgment were so commingled that all the virtues seemed to 
be the natural result and to flow spontaneously from the combination, 
as water from the purest fountain. In him the exercise of the most exalted 
virtue required no exertion ; it was part and parcel of his nature and of the 
glorious organization "to which every god had set his seal." Where was 
there any error in him? He was a man and, therefore, in all humility, 
we, who share that humanity, must acknowledge that he had his imper- 
fections; but who, through his long and eventful life, can point to an error 
or to a vice committed, or a duty omitted? His character was made up 
and compounded of all the virtues that constitute a hero, patriot, statesman 
and benefactor, and all his achievements were but the practical development 
of that character and those virtues. He was the same everywhere — in the 
camp, in the Cabinet, at Mount Vernon. No diflference could be distin- 
guished anywhere. His greatness was of that innate and mystic character 
that was present with him everywhere. It was that which gave him dignity, 
and not occasional situations or offices which he held under the Govern- 
ment. He dignified office ; he elevated the highest rank, military or civil, 
which he ever heU. No rank, military, or civil, ever raised him or could 
come up to that majestic character which the God of his nature had im- 
planted in him. That was our Washington. He was a firm believer in a 
divine Providence, and it belonged to his elevated and majestic mind to be 
so — a mind that connected itself with the throne of the Deity from which 
it sprung. His heart was purified and his motives were elevated by constant 
recurrence to that divine assistance which he thought was extended to his 
country and to himself in his service of that country. Our history as a 
people is, to a remarkable extent, a history of providences ; and, among all 
the benignities of Providence, in a worldly point of view, I know no greater 
gift that she has conferred upon us than in the person of Washington 
himself. She raised him at the appointed time; she raised him up at a 
grand crisis in the affairs of mankind, when the thous:hts of men were 
about taking a new direction; when the old things, the old despotisms, 
were about to pass away under the influence of a dawning public opinion 
which was about to assert the long-lost rights of mankind; when you, a 
new-bom people, for whom this miehty continent has been reserved as 
the most magnificent land that the Almighty ever prepared for man, had 
grown to an estate to feel your strength, to know your rights and to be 
willing to struggle for them. Washington was raised up to become the 
great leader of those great popular principles of human rights and to conse- 
crate them, as it were, by connecting: them in his own person with every 
personal, moral, private and public virtue, not leaving: us to mere idealism, 
but exhibitins: and embodying, in his own venerated and beloved person, 
all those mighty principled which were necessary to our success and to the 
establishment of our liberties. He led us triumphantly through the seven 



182 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

years' war and, our glorious Revolution being successfully accomplished, 
he applied himself, with all his influence and all his wisdom, to secure, 
by free and permanent institutions, all the blessings that liberty and inde- 
pendence could confer on a country. Our present Constitution and form of 
Government were the grand results of his patriotic efforts. A new Govern- 
ment being thus established, he was by the unanimous voice of the country 
called to the presidential office, that by his wisdom and influence he might 
put into practice and consolidate those new and untried institutions by 
which all the blessings acquired by the Revolution and contemplated by 
that Government were to be practically secured to the people of the United 
States. He served until the success of the experiment was demonstrated. 
He retired then to his beloved Mount Vernon and there passed in honored 
privacy the remainder of his life. Where can another such character be 
exhibited on the pages of history? Providence intended him for a model. 
She has made his character cover the whole space of political and private 
life. She trained him up in the humblest walks of private life. There 
he knew the wishes and wants and conditions of the humblest of his fellow 
citizens. The confidence which he inspired everywhere spread with every 
step that he advanced in life. He became commander of the army. With 
all the military despotism that belongs to such a state, he used his power 
"s^'ithout the oppression of a human being. During a seven-year war, amid 
such trials and troubles as no people ever saw, in no exigency, by no ex- 
tremity, was he driven to the necessity of committing a trespass or wrong 
upon any man or any man's property. He needed no act of amnesty 
afterwards by the Government to protect him against personal responsi- 
bility, which acts of violence might have been necessary to others. He 
led you triumphantly on. He was an example to all military men. He 
became President. He has left us an example there, to which we look 
back with filial reverence and long, long may we do so. 

Before his retirement from office, he made to the people of the United 
States that "farewell address," so familiar to the thoughts of us all. It 
contains, as he himself said, the advice of a parting friend, who can possibly 
have no personal motive to bias his counsel. It was the gathered wisdom 
of all his life and all his experience. What a legacy! We rejoice in 
riches that no nation ever knew before. What are the mines of California 
with their perishing gold to this? You have a legacy left you in wisdom 
of that man that is above all price. The Romans shouted, the Romans 
exulted, when Mark Antony told them that Caesar had left them a few 
denarii and the privilege of walking in his gardens. That was the imperial 
bequest. How ignoble, how trifling, does the Roman seem to you, my 
countrymen, who exult to-day in the legacy which was left you in the 
farewell address of Washington! That is imperishable. So long as we 
remember it, it will render our Government and our liberties imperishable; 
and, when we forget it, it will survive the memory, I trust in God, of some 
other people more worthy of it, even if it be to shame this degenerate 
republic. That farewell address contains wisdom enough, if we but attend 
to it; contains lessons enough to euide us in all our duties as 
citizens and in all our public affairs. There are two subjects 
which occurrences have turned our attention io with particular 
interest, and which I may be allowed on this occasion to advert to, 
in no spirit of controversy or of unkindness towards any one, but in that 
spirit which induces me to desire to see every lesson of Washington daily 
and constantly and freshly brought to the mind of every citizen of the 



JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 133 

United States. To my children they were brought as their first lessons. 
There is none too old to profit by them, and they can not be learned too 
early. You are familiar with that address, gentlemen, and 1 will therefore 
only ask you to allow me to allude to the two subjects upon which he has 
been peculiarly emphatic in his advice. The one is to preserve the Union of 
the States; that, he says, is the main pillar of the edifice of independence 
and our liberties; frown down every attempt to bring it into question, 
much less to subvert it; when it is gone, all is gone. Let us heed this 
lesson and be careful. 1 trust in God we have no grounds to apprehend 
such a degree of oppression as will compel us to raise our suicidal arms 
for the destruction of this great Government and of this Union which makes 
us brethren. I do not allow my mind to look forward to such a disaster. 
I will look upon this Union as indissoluble and as firmly rooted as the 
mountains of our native land. I will hope so; 1 will believe so; I will so 
act, and nothing but a necessity, invincible and overwhelming can drive 
me to disunion. 

But there are external dangers, also, against which Washington warns 
us, and that is the second subject to which I desire to ask your attention. 
Beware, he says, of the introduction or exercise of foreign influence among 
you. We are Americans. Washington has taught us, and we have learned 
to govern ourselves. If the rest of the world have not yet learned that 
great lesson, how shall they teach us? Shall they undertake to expound 
to us the farewell address of our Washington, or to influence us to depart 
from the policy recommended by him? We are the teachers, and they 
have not, or they will not, learn, and yet they come to teach us. Be 
jealous, he said, of all foreign influence and enter into entangling alliances 
with none. Cherish no particular partiality or prejudice for or against any 
people. Be just to all, impartial to all. It is folly to expect disinterested 
favors from any nation. That is not the relation or character of nations. 
Favor is a basis too uncertain upon which to place any steadfast or per- 
manent relations. Justice and the interests of the parties is the only sound 
and substantial basis for national relations. Go not abroad to mingle your- 
selves in the quarrels of wars of other nations. Take care to do them no 
wrong, but avoid the romantic notion of righting the wrongs of all the 
world and resisting by arms the oppression of all. 

The sword and the bayonet have been useful in defending the rights 
and liberties of those who used them, but in what other have they ever 
contributed to promote the cause of freedom or of human rights? The 
heart must be prepared for liberty; the understanding must know what 
it is, and how to value it. Then, if you put proper arms into the hands 
of the nation so imbued. Til warrant you they will obtain and sustain 
their freedomL We have given the world an example of that success. 
But three millions, scattered over a vast territory, opposed to the most 
powerful enemy on earth; we went triumphantly through our Revolution 
and established liberties. But it is said that we have a right to interfere 
in the affairs of other unions and in the quarrels of other nations. Why, 
certainly we have — certainly we have. Any man has the right, if he 
pleases, to busy himself in the affairs of all his neighbors, but he will not 
likely profit by it, and would be called a busybody for his pains. We, as 
a nation, have a right to decide — and it is always a question of expediency— 
whether we will or not interfere in the affairs of other nations. There 
are cases so connected with our own interests and with the cause of 
humanity, that interference would be proper. But, still, it is a question 



134 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

for the sound discretion of this people — a question always of expediency, 
whether you will or will not interfere; and it is just because it is a question 
of that character, and because our passions and sympathies may often 
tempt us to err upon it, that Washington has made it the subject of this 
emphatic admonition. It is not because we have not the right to interfere, 
but it is because we have the right and because we are surrounded by 
temptations — by the temptations of generous and honest hearts and noble 
principles — to transcend the limit of prudence and of policy and to inter- 
fere in the affairs of our neighbors^ that he has admonished us. Washington, 
with that forecast and that prophetic spirit which constituted a part of his 
character, saw through all this. He tells you: "Stand upon your own 
ground." That is the ground to stand upon. 

What can you do by interference? Argument is unnecessary. The 
name of Washington ought to be authority — prophetic, oracular authority 
for us. Is our mission in this world to interfere by arms? It is but little 
now, comparatively, of good that the bayonet and the sword can do. The 
plowshare does a thousand times more than either. The time was when 
arms were powerful instruments of oppression; mercenary and degenerate 
spirit of the people over whom they were brandished. What could we 
do by armed interference in European politics? So mighty at home, what 
could we do abroad? How would our eagles pine and die if carried 
abroad, without the auspices of Washington, and against his advice, to 
engage in foreign wars of intervention in distant regions of despotism, 
where we could no longer feed them from the plenteous tables of our 
liberty! We can do nothing there. We can do nothing in that way. I 
am not one of those who shrink from tHis thing simply because blood is to 
be shed. I have seen war; I have voted for maintaining it; I have con- 
tributed to maintain it; I pretend to no exquisite sensibility upon the 
subject of shedding blood, where our public interest or our public glory 
call upon my fellow citizens to lay down their lives and shed their blood, 
but I do not wish to see them depart from those great and sure principles 
of policy which I am certain will lead my country to a greatness which 
will give to her word a power beyond that of armies in distant parts of 
the world. 

Our mission, so far as it concerns our distant brethren, is not a mission 
of arms. We are here to do what Washington advised us to do — take 
care of our Union, have a proper respect for the Constitution and laws 
of our country, cultivate peace and commerce with all nations, do equal 
justice to all nations, and thereby set an example to them and show forth 
in ourselves the blessings of self-government to all the world. Thus you 
will best convince mankind. Seeing you prosper, they will follow your 
example and do likewise. It is by that power of opinion, by that power 
of reformation, that you can render the mightiest and greatest service 
that is in your power towards the spread of liberty all over the world. 
Adopt the policy of interference, and what is its consequences ? War, end- 
less war. If one interferes, another will interfere, and another, and an- 
other, and so this doctrine for the protection of republican liberty and 
human rights results in a perpetual, widespread and wide-spreading war, 
until all mankind, overcome by slaughter and ruin, shall fall down bleeding 
and exhausted. I can see no other end, or good in it, unless you suppose 
that nations will consent that one alone shall erect itself into the arbiter 
and judge of the conduct of afl other nations, and that alone shall inter- 
fere to execute what it alone determines to be national law. That alone 



JOHN J. CRITTENDEN- 136 

can prevent widespread devastation from the adoption of this principle 
of intervention. 

I beg pardon for the time I have occupied, but I hope that I may 
be excused for saying that I feel safer, I feel that my country is safer, 
while pursuing the policy of Washington, than in making any new experi- 
m.ents in politics, upon any new expositions of Washington's legacy and 
advice to the American people. I want to stand "super antiquas vias" upon 
the old road that Washington traveled, and that every President from 
Washington to Fillmore has traveled. This policy of non-intervention in 
the aflfairs of other countries has been maintained and sanctified by all 
our great magistrates. I may be defective in what is called "the spirit 
of the age," for aught I know, but I acknowledge that I feel safer in 
this ancient and well-tried policy than in the novelties of the present day. 



WILLIAM GRAHAM DEARING. 

[William Graham Bearing, Lawyer, United States Surveyor of Customs, 
Louisville, Ky., was born near Poplar Plains, Fleming County, Kentucky, 
February 29, 1860. Former County Attorney of Fleming county and Police 
Judge of Flemingsburg, Ky.] 

THE TRUE HERO. 

A speech delivered at the commencement exercises of the Kentucky 
Military Institute, May 30, 1906. 

Whether a gloomy or happy thought, it is, nevertheless, a fact, that, 
of the numberless myriads of people who have lived and died upon this 
earth, the names of only a few have escaped the remorseless hand of 
everlasting oblivion. 

Call the roll of fame, and how few answer, and even some of these, 
so far as they are individually concerned, mourn that this is even so. Many 
men attain the satisfaction of ambition, and when they make their exit from 
the scene of action realize vividly: "All things are not what they seem." 

Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon reached a height of worldly renown 
seldom ever attained by men, but in so doing they made mountains of dead 
men and filled valleys and lands with the tears of heart-broken orphans and 
wailing widows. Was the end reached worth the sacrifice ? In the accounts 
they will be compelled to give in the presence of etemal judgment, it 
seems to me they could never excuse or even palliate the atrocious murders 
and wholesale slaughter of thousands of men under the dignified name 
of military conquest. 

The greatness of a majority of the heroes of the past is the resultant 
of brute force and intellectuality. To be able to command a great mass 
of men, with preconceived plans, into skfllful execution, does show a 
superiority over the average man which leads to preferment and possibly 
to a deified hero. 

In times when brute force commanded, this worship of military heroes 
may be proper and right, but in this period of the world's history, and 
especially since the promulgation of the doctrines of the humble Nazarene, 
force and power should be dethroned, and in their places be installed justice 
and ready obedience to its command. 

If the object of life is merely to carve one's name upon the tablets of 
fame, then certainly life is a failure, as but few are permanent enough 
to escape the destructive influence of a day. Now, we seldom hear men- 
tioned the names of such illustrious senators as Benton, Hale, Wilson and 
Beck, and indeed they were giants of intellectual strength and did well 
their part. 

To be a truly great hero, it is not necessary to be the successful leader 
of a mighty battle. He can be such in the humbler walks of life; ha 
may wear the garland in legislative halls; he may accomplish it at the 
inventor's desk or the mechanic's bench. 

Great and heroic deeds inspire us in whatever sphere they may be. 



WILLIAM GRAHAM DEABING- 137 

They may lose their luster because of the humble actor, but the arortiA 
and fragrance of beauty still remain. 

There are more heroes in the common walks of life than we at first 
imagine. We find self-sacrifice in the hovel; we find magnanimity in the 
hut, and we find generosity and hospitality in the log cabin. We find 
much in all grades and departments of life to love and admire. 

The widowed mother who toils and struggles in honest labor to raise 
and educate her children, that they may become useful men and women, 
is a heroine of the truest type, and she deserves to be ranked along with 
Hannibal. Her self-sacrifice niiay be unsung and unwritten by men, but 
in the presence of God her crown will be resplendant. 

Mrs. Edwards, a lonely country woman, living near Cumberland Gap, 
believing in and loving the cause of the Union, braved alone the dangers 
of a dark night, rising through dense forests and over mountain tops, to 
inform General George Morgan that the Confederate army was marching 
and would soon assault and capture his army. 

This information enabled General Morgan to withdraw his army and 
artillery, and thus prevented certain capture. That humble woman deserves 
as rich a reward as if she had fought and won a big victory. 

The man who does his full duty as he sees and believes it is a trqe 
hero. On many a battlefield in our late Civil War, we had acts of bravery, 
devotion to duty and examples of self -sacrifice that will live and be remem- 
bered with devotion and pride as long as we as a people exist. The 
individual soldier acted as heroically as the general. 

The proud and brave acts of either side are our common heritage. 
Our hearts fill with pride when we speak of that gallant charge of the 
soldiers of Pickett's brigade against Round Top on the famous battlefield 
of Gettysburg, and it was repulsed by the magnificent defense of the 
Federal artillerymen and soldiers. Each soldier did his duty, and no more 
could any one do. 

The true hero not only follows beaten paths, but blazes out new 
ones. He is not content to be a drone, to sit idly by and let the world 
move on. He becomes an actor. He does something. Like your able 
superintendent, he was not content to see his boys closed in small rooms 
from the bleak days of December, through the boisterous days of March, 
but conceived the idea of taking them to the balmy clime of Florida during 
this time. 

The idea was new; it was progressive. Doubtless each boy returned 
benefited and improved. Any common man may follow a beaten track; 
it takes a hero to blaze a new one. Over in the distant mountain is hidden 
wealth untold. A man conceives how he can build a railroad and becomes 
the possessor of immense wealth. He does build it; he is now rich; he 
is really a hero. By the proper use of his intellectual faculties, he has 
caused Nature to yield to his demands. 

We live in an age of great possibilities — perhaps the greatest the world 
has ever known. He who wills can do. The greatest acts are yet tc 
be performed, and perhaps the greatest heroes are yet unborn. 

The sweetest song has not been sung, 
Nor has the loudest bell been rung; 
The brightest jewel still lies deep, 
The fairest rose is yet asleep; 
The greatest ship has never sailed. 
The highest mountains are unsealed; 



188 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

The largest house of brick and beam 
Is but the vision of a dream; 
The swiftest locomotive, too, 
Has yet to show what it can do; 
The world's great plans have not been heard 
And peace to-day is but a word. 
Think, then, ye men of little worth, 
Who say there's naught to do on earth." 

If we will but do our duty to the fullest measure, to the extent of 
the abilities given us by our Creator, then we will have acted well our 
part, we can feel that we should be numbered among the list of unknown 
yet true heroes, and with this we should be content. 

To-morrow you leave your Alma Mater to conquer and to be conquered. 
Your life's work has just begun. You may think you have worked hard 
here, but when you come into contact with the keen edge of the world, 
you will find that to parry the blows you must be prepared, and, if possible, 
be the aggressor. If you fail, cry not, for the world will miss you no 
more than when you put your fingers into the great waters of the deep 
and take them away. The atoms roll together the same as if they had 
never been there. 

You are prepared for the contest by competent and sincere teachers 
in this great institution of learning, whose history is a part of the history 
Df our State, and directed by a superintendent, one of the ablest educators 
of our country. So profit by their experience, act well your part, and when 
life's journey is over and the battle fought, you will leave the proud 
heritage of being brave, upright and noble men. No more should any man 
ask. 



WILLIAM J. DEBOE. 

[William J. Deboe, Lawyer, United States Senator, 1897-1903, was born in 
Crittenden County, Kentucky, 1849; graduate M. D. University of Louisville; 
practiced medicine a few years; studied law; admitted to bar; delegate to 
National Republican Convention 1892 and 1896; member Republican State 
Central Committee twelve years; candidate for Congress, 1892; State Sena- 
tor, 1893-96; United States Senate, 1897-1903.] 

NICARAGUA CANAL. 

A portion of speech delivered in the United States Senate February 19, 
1901, on the bill "To provide for the construction of an inter-oceanic canal 
connecting the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans." 

Mr. President: 

The question of constructing a canal across the isthmus connecting 
North and South America has received the attention and consideration of 
the leading political parties and many of the most eminent statesmen 'of 
this country, as well as that of other nations, which I desire to briefly 
review and present my reasons in advocacy of this great enterprise. 

The passage of the bill "to provide for the construction of a canal 
connecting the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans" means that our 
Government is to assumie a colossal undertaking and that we are to 
put into effect an idea which has long been agitated by the commercial 
and industrial interests of the world. 

The proposition to build a ship canal across Nicaragua, uniting the 
waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, may be said to have originated 
with Alexander von Humboldt, the great explorer and scientist, who ex- 
pressed himself most favorably as to the advantages of the Nicaragua 
route. Since his time, various efforts have been made to undertake the 
work, but it was not until the Maritime Canal Company, of Nicaragua, 
obtained a concession from the government of that country that it was 
actually begun. The company was chartered by acts of Congress in 1889, 
and was organized May 4th of that year. The work of construction had 
already been commenced, and it continued until the summer of 1893, when 
it suspended for want of funds. 

The length of the canal from port to port will be 169^ miles, or 
which 26 miles will be excavated channel and 143>^ miles the improved 
navigation of rivers, lakes and basins. The termini of the canal are San 
Juan del Norte, or Greytown, on the Atlantic, and Brito on the Pacific. 
The summit level is that of Lake Nicaragua, 110 feet above the sea. 
There will be only six locks, three on the Atlantic and three on the Pacific 
side. 

Congress has passed various resolutions in regard to this question, and 
divers petitions, memorials and resolutions from State Legislatures, boards 
of trade and individuals have been presented to Congress asking that 
action be taken in reference to this enterprise. 

In the Forty-seventh Congress two bills to incorporate companies were 
introduced — ^^one in the Senate and one in the House^ — ^the first reported — 
both for ship railways. 



140 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

In the same Congress a bill was introduced in the Senate and one in 
the House to incorporate the Maritime Canal Company, of Nicaragua. 
That in the Senate was favorably reported, but not acted on. In the House 
a minority report was presented. A motion was made to make it a special 
order, but rejected after debate. 

The most elaborate discussion of the whole matter occurred at the 
third session of the Fifty-third Congress. The Maritime Canal Company, 
of Nicaragua, was incorporated February 20, 1889. A very interesting 
amendment was extensively debated in the third session of the Fifty-fifth 
Congress — in truth, a revision of the whole charter. 

Its charter was granted on the express condition, therein expressed, 
that no pecuniary liability should ever be imposed on the United States 
by the company. The company solemnly declared that they did not want 
a dollar from the United States, or any guaranty whatever. Two years 
thereafter, it boldly asked a subsidy of ^70,000,000 in aid. Failing then, 
it subsequently returned and asked a subsidy of ^100,000,000; and after- 
ward made a third and even fourth attempt. The company later lost its 
concession from Nicaragua. 

All treaties with reference to an isthmian transit have been, down to 
the present time, in pursuance of two purposes: First, a grant of free 
and uninterrupted transit of the people and also of the Government of 
the United States; and, secon^d, as was stated by President Buchanan, "a 
guaranty of the neutrality and protection of these routes, not only for the 
benefit of the republics through which they pass, but, in the language of 
our treaty, with New Granada, in order to secure themselves the tranquil 
and constant enjoyment of these interoceanic communications." 

The first in the line was a treaty with New Granada December 12, 
1846, and it was a sequel to several years' contemplation and discussion. 
It bound our Government to guarantee to New Granada "the perfect neu- 
trality of the before-mentioned isthmus with a view that the free transit 
from one to the other sea may not be interrupted or embarrassed in any 
future time while this treaty exists." 

The next was the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, which provided, in the eighth 
article, that "the Government of the United States, having not only desired, 
in entering into this convention, to accomplish a particular object, but also 
to establish a general principle, they hereby agree to extend their pro- 
tection by treaty stipulations to any other practicable communications^ 
whether by canal or railway, across the isthmus which connects North 
and South America, and especially to the interoceanic communications, 
should the same prove practicable, whether by canal or railway, which are 
now proposed to be established by the way of Tehauntepec or Panama; 
and that the said canals or railways shall also be open on like terms to 
the citizens and subjects of every other State which is willing to grant 
thereto such protection as the United States and Great Britain propose to 
afford." 

Then followed a treaty with Mexico, December 30, 1853, regarding the 
Tehauntepec route, which conceded a wide power to the United States, 
namely, that "the Mexican Government having agreed to protect with its 
whole power the prosecution, preservation and security of the work, the 
United States may extend its protection as it shall judge wise, to use it 
when it may feel sanctioned and warranted by the public or international 
law." 

Next was the treaty with Great Britain of 1857, which, being amended 



WILLIAM J. DEBOE. 141 

by the Senate, was rejected by Great Britain. Then a treaty with Nicar- 
agua, concerning which President Buchanan said, in his message of April 
5, i860: "Such was believed to be the established policy of the Govern- 
ment at the commencement of this administration, viz., the grant of transit 
in our favor and the guaranty of our protection as an equivalent." 

In President Arthur's fourth annual message, he states: "With the 
republic of Nicaragua a treaty has been concluded which authorizes the 
construction, by the United States, of a canal, railway and telegraph lines 
across the Nicaraguan territory," which he transmitted later to the Senate 
for ratification. He claimed that the negotiation of this treaty was entered 
upon under a conviction that it was imperatively demanded by the present 
and future political and material interest of the United States. But this 
treaty was withdrawn March 13^ 1885, and we have just ratified the Hay- 
Pauncefote treaty, with amendments, about which we have heard so much 
of late, in line with the policy of this Government from the beginning as 
to the neutrality of such work. In general, the treaties have all contem- 
plated the construction of a canal without Government aid except in the 
way of protection. 

But President Harrison boldly advocated, in addition, a Government 
guaranty. To the minds of many of our wisest and best men the estab- 
lishment of a water communication between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts 
of the Union is a necessity; but we all know the accomplishment of which, 
however, within the territory of the United States is a physical impossi- 
bility. While the enterprise of our citizens has responded to the duty of 
creating means 'of speedy transit by rail between the oceans, these achieve- 
ments are not sufficient to a most important requisite of national union and 
prosperity. 

Mr. President, the advantages, in brief, of the construction of the 
Nicaraguan canal are saving in distance and time, the prolongation of the 
life of vessels, and the increase of commerce by the facilities afforded. 
The importance of the great enterprise is incalculable. For all maritime 
purposes the States upon the Pacific are more distant from those upon 
the Atlantic than if separated by either ocean alone. California is nearer 
to Asia than to New York, and New York is nearer Europe or Africa than 
the extreme States on our west. We have an ocean border exceeding 
10,000 miles on the Pacific. Within a generation, the Western coast has 
developed into an empire, with a large and rapidly growing population, 
with vast but partially developed resources. At the present rate of increase, 
the end of the century will see us a nation of perhaps over 200,000,000 
inhabitants, of which the West should have a considerable larger and richer 
proportion than now. Forming one nation in interest and aims, the East 
and the West are more widely disjoined to-day for all purposes of direct 
economical intercourse by water and of national defense against maritime 
aggressions than our foreign possessions. Our attention was most forcibly 
directed to this fact during our war with Spain. The battleship Oregon 
was needed in Cuban waters, and was compelled to make the great voyage 
of 10,000 or 12,000 miles around Cape Horn. With a constant strain of 
anxiety, the whole nation awaited the success of her mission. We did not 
know but what at some point on this long journey she would come in 
contact with a hostile fleet and get destroyed or captured; and if we had 
been at war with a nation which was our equal, it is plain she could not 
have made the voyage without mishap. 

Civil Engineer Corthell, in a lecture November 22, 1895, gave this 



142 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

summary : From New York to San Francisco, by the way of Cape Horn, 
the distance is about 15,420 miles; and by sail the time averages about 
one hundred and thirty days ; by way of the Straits of Magellan, by steam, 
the time is about sixty days and the distance 13,090 miles; via Tehaun- 
tepec, by steamship, the time would be about twenty days and the distance 
4,280 miles, and by the Nicaragua route the figures would require but 
little change. 

Mr. Corthell states that the total freight traffic on all transcontinental 
lines of the United States is only 1,000,000 tons, and the through freight 
on all railroads, omitting the river traffic, between Northern, Eastern and 
Western points and tide water on the Gulf of Mexico is 10,500,000 tons. 

Mr. President, this commerce would immensely increase by having an 
outlet into the Pacific ocean, and the building of the canal will necessarily 
create a great coastwise commerce which does not now exist and will not 
exist unless the canal is constructed. The ports of Galveston, Brazos, 
Sabine Pass, New Orleans, Mobile^ Pensacola, and Tampico in Mexico, 
have been considerably benefited, from a commercial view, by the improve- 
ment of the Gulf of Mexico; but to add to this prodigious influence the 
Nicaragua canal, these ports would soon be as tantamount in importance 
to our great Southern interior as Liverpool is to Great Britain. 

Mr. President, it will be seen from a casual observation of the map 
that not only will the canal be conducive to a quicker market along our 
Western coast, our possessions in the Far East, and in trading with the 
Orient, but it will also enable us to reach the entire western coast of South 
America and a portion of the interior of that country which we have 
hitherto been unable to reach, for the reason of the same impediment which 
thwarts us in our unceasing attempts to share in the commercial interest 
of the Far East as well as to unite the interests of our common country. 
This is a phase of the question which is somewhat diiferent from the 
general purport of the construction of the canal, but it is far from inferior 
to any of the great purposes for which this great canal will be built. It 
is well known to us that the countries in South America which we could 
reach through the Nicaragua canal are lands of fertile soil and inexhaustible 
wealth, which produce bountiful crops and have millions of acres of virgin 
forest, which for superiority in quality is not surpassed and doubtless 
unequaled elsewhere on the globe. If this canal had been built twenty-five 
years ago, to-day our interests, commingled with theirs, would mean wealth 
incalculable ; besides, our republic, always having a mutual interest in sister 
republics, would be closer in touch with the habits of their people, their 
wishes, their rights and their supreme desires. 

From the time that extraordinary conqueror, Pizarro, entered the land 
cf the renowned Inca, devastating the country, murdering nobles and sub- 
jects and finally the ruler and his successors, this country has sought 
profitable commercial relations with the countries of South America. We 
have proclaimed to the wodd, through the Monroe doctrine, our attitude 
in relation to these republics, and each attempt by foreign powers to 
encroach upon the rights of either of them has caused inquietude throughout 
this country. But this has not o5viated and will not obviate our disad- 
vantage in a commercial sense. 

Notwithstanding the inconvenience to which our trade has always been 
subjected with the countries of Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia, 
our trade is now very important with each of them. It is true, however, 
that we do not supply above from 7 to 10 per cent, of the $51,000,000 



WILLIAMJ.DEBOE. 148 

imported into those countries of South America on the Pacific coast, and 
about the same of the $22,000,000 in the countries of the eastern or 
Atlantic coast, the latter being practically as near European countries as to 
the United States. 

We may also account for the preponderance of trade from the eastern 
countries of South America going to Europe instead of to this country for 
the very plain reason of their superior shipping lines and facilities, which 
it is almost an impossibility for this country to enjoy under our existing 
maritime laws. But not so with the western coast if we had the canal; 
we would then at least equal the proportion we hold already on the coun- 
tries on the northern coast of South America bordering on the Caribbean 
Sea. Of the commerce with them we have only about 25 per cent., and 
our disadvantage seems to be on the increase. 

In 1868, our sales to the countries south of us were 20 per cent, of our 
total exports; in 1878, a little less than 10 per cent.; in 1888, a fraction 
above 10 per cent. ; in 1898, but 7 per cent. 

To British North America the United States supplies 59 per cent, of the 
total imports for consumption; to Mexico, 49 per cent.; to the Central 
American States, 37 per cent.; to Colombia, 33 per cent.; to Venezuela, 
27 per cent. 

The Nicaragua route, after years of study by eminent engineers of 
Italy, France, Belgium and Germany, as well as the United States, who 
are all confident of the feasibility of the construction of the canal, has been 
decided to be the best route. The estimated cost and construction of the 
canal is ;^ 150,000,000. We have a right to expect, in view of the statistics 
given by Mr. Corthell in relation to the Suez canal, that our commerce 
will increase immensely. 

If the United States provides the money to build the canal, the control 
of it as property must be secured to us for that additional and indisputable 
reason. If we create this property with our money within the limits of 
another sovereign government, and with its consent, our ownership of the 
canal must be in the nature of a license or right to control such property, 
if we can ntake such a treaty with the power that owns the soil. When 
such a right is thus acquired, no other nation can object to our property 
in the canal. Whether such a treaty would in its use be oppressive to 
other States of this hemisphere, or of the world, as an unjust restraint 
of the freedom of the seas, is a question which is distinct from our property 
rights, and depends upon the principles of the laws of nations. 

It seems now to be settled not only that we are to construct the canal 
on the principle of our control, with a general neutrality attached, but also 
that such canal is to pass through Nicaragua. There is no good ground 
of comparison with the Panama possibility, which has been hitherto abortive 
and is likely to continue so. 

As Engineer Corthell stated, there can be no reason for a moment's 
hesitation. The work at Panama is not more than half finished, if it is ever 
to be made effective; and yet it has already cost at least $250,000,000. 
Doubling that, we have $500,000,000 for a work which, by all accounts, 
will be comparatively worthless when done, while the Nicaragua canal does 
not need an expenditure of more than $150,000,000 in all. 

The senate committee has very aptly said that the company has nothing 
to sell us. While it is true a new company has been organized, we have 
no evidence it wil[ do any better than the old one. What superior facilities 
has it in hand ? We are offered nothing but a speculative scheme to unload 



144 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

a stupendous failure upon the Government at an immense profit to the 
projectors. 

The history and the conduct of the Nicaragua Canal Company have 
been ably discussed by members of this body, and I shall let it rest where 
they left it. 

Mr. President, I believe that China will soon be opened up to civiliza- 
tion and the nations of the world will strive for her trade. In competing, 
for this trade the Nicaragua canal will be of great value to this country, 
for it will bring the markets of the world nearer the great coal fields and 
mines and farms of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, 
Tennessee and Georgia, and the entire South as well as the entire North. 

Since the Spanish-American war, waged in the interest of humanity, 
new responsibilities have come to us, which must be met in the future 
as they have been in the past, with courage and wisdom. It makes it 
almost imperative on the part of the United States to construct this canal. 



BASIL W. DUKE. 



[Basil W. Duke, Lawyer, Soldier, Louisville, Ky., was born in Scott 
County, Kentucky, May 28, 1838; educated at Georgetown College and at 
Centre College, Danville, Ky., was First Lieutenant, Lieutenant-Colonel, 
Colonel and Brigadier-General in Confederate Army; former Commonwealth 
Attorney.] 

GOVERNOR LUKE P. BLACKBURN. 

A speech delivered at the unveiling of a monument erected to the mem- 
ory of the late Governor Luke P. Blackburn, by the State of Kentucky, 
Frankfort, Ky., May 27, 1891. 

I have been asked, as one who knew him well and was honored with 
his friendship and confidence, to offer some brief testimonial to the charac- 
ter and services of the distinguished Kentuckian to whose memory this 
monument is erected. To do this ought to be a pleasing and a grateful 
duty on the part of any one who was so fortunate as to have ever been 
brought into close relations with Governor Blackburn, for no man has ap- 
peared above the crowd in this day and community — no man has ever 
lived in this Commonwealth, perhaps — to whom his friends owe a larger 
debt of gratitude, and of whom all men should speak more kindly. And, 
I may add, the story of no life has in it less that calls for silence or less 
that suggests the avoidance of frank, honest speech. 

The biographer can afford to speak of him as he was and nothing ex- 
tenuate ; we can do no better than tell of him the whole truth and nothing 
but the truth. His name, so dear and venerable, need not be, nor should 
it be, obscured in the phrases of conventional eulogy. If coming genera- 
tions of his countrymen are to understand and love him as his contem- 
poraries did, if his life is to teach its best lesson, and that which he has 
done be justly remembered, the truest portrait of him possible should be 
given to his people. 

It is kind, and if no wrong be thereby done to history, it is proper and 
decorous to speak of many men who have departed this life, especially 
if they have held honorable position, in the language of panegyric. We 
hear ascribed to such men improbable motives and actions, and impossible 
virtues. But, among our dead are some who should not thus be treated— » 
some whose lives have been really of exemplary value, and whose char- 
acters, therefore, should not be represented in colors that flatter and 
exaggerated proportions, but should be painted as Cromwell commanded 
Lely to paint him, without a line obliterated or a blemish concealed — 
which should be portrayed as faithfully as the ancients demanded should 
be wrought the busts of their fathers that were to have place among 
the tutelary guardians of the roof-tree and the hearth. Of such was 
he to whom we pay tribute to-day; a noble and true soul; but a real 
man of flesh and blood, with the passions and errors of humanity, purified 
by a heroic purpose, corrected by a conscience to which he ever listened 
and a sense of justice as earnest as it was instinctive. 

It is charged on us Americans — whether justly or not, I will not stop 

9 



146 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

to inquire, that, in our praise and blame alike, we are altogether too em- 
phatic and not enough discriminative. Be that as it may, among our 
popular heroes, who have passed from earth and are enthroned in the 
Pantheon of tradition or history, there are certain ones whom we are 
accustomed to regard and describe almost as gods. We speak of them 
as if they had been preternatural beings; incarnations of wisdom, purity 
and all perfections; impeccable, infallible, unapproachable. We feel that 
to hold communion with such personages would be like praying to an 
idol ; some response might come, in some way, to the supplication, but no 
notice nor recognition could be expected of the adorer. They awe, but 
do not attract us. We vaguely revere, but can not understand how we 
ever could have loved them. They are as shadowy to any mental per- 
ception, as intangible to the grasp of our aflfections, as the ancestral ghost 
which the savage worships as his tribal deity. While shuddering at the 
thought as at the hint of sacrilege, we yet can not avoid wonder that such 
men were ever required to live on this earth at all, and why they were 
not seated, without probationary humiliation here, amidst the far, cold, 
shining constellations. If such men have really lived, I can not understandj 
I confess, how their lofty contemplations ever could have included the 
considerations which aflfect ordinary humanity. Incapacitated by virtues so 
serene, superior and invulnerable, for aught of intelligent sympathy with 
the sons and daughters of fallen Adam, they should, it seems to me, have 
resided as Epicurus conceived that his gods did, in an empyrean immeas- 
urably removed above this world and tranquilly indiflferent to its ills and 
struggles. 

The man of whom I speak would have claimed, would have coveted, 
no such superiority over his fellowmen and their fortunes. An isolation 
from his kind, however splendid, would have been direr to him than the 
punishment of Prometheus. He wished to be among men and of them, 
rejoicing in their happiness, aiding them in their sorrows, helping to bear 
Iheir burdens, humbly admitting that he shared their weaknesses, and 
caring little to be exalted above them, save in so far as such preferment 
gave token of their aflfection. He was not "of the earth, earthy," nor 
was he a "worldly" man, as that term is usually employed; but in all 
the affairs of this world, in all the manifold matters which interest the 
children of earth, whether for good or evil, for weal or woe, he felt 
profound concern. 

Bom in the heart of our fair State, where the winds which come down 
from the mountains are lulled into breezes as they linger over the blue- 
grass, where the bright waters of Elkhom, having gathered sweet and 
limpid tribute from a thousand rills and brooks, wind through the loveliest 
region which the sun kisses and the stars gaze down on; where hill and 
valley, pasture and woodland bewilder with alternate pictures of beauty; 
where the grain crops wave and glisten above a soil which, from seed-time 
to harvest, is a teeming mother and generous nurse, and the green, velvety 
grasses creep, as if in homage, to the very feet of the great trees, which 
stretch out their mighty limbs, like monarchs swaying scepters; bom in a 
land where patriotism should be regarded not so much as a virtue or a 
duty as a necessity (for the native of such a land who does not love it 
ought never to have been bom) , Luke P. Blackburn inherited the rich, ex- 
uberant vitality, the keen relish for everything in Nature, the vigorous, 
positive individuality, the ready adaptation to and sympathy with all other 
life around him, with which a soil so bounteous might have been expected 



BASIL W. DUKE. H7 

to endow her favorite children. And he grew up a very genuine and 
typical product of such a region. An impulsive, aggressive nature, full of 
sap and fiber, with a tendency to go to extremes in all that he conceived 
or understood, like a strong tree pushing its roots and branches in all 
directions which promise light and nutrition. He was the frankest man 
I ever knew. He never left you in doubt as to what he thought or what 
he meant. If he opposed anything, or if he advocated it, he invariably 
impressed people with the notion that he was taking an interest in it. 
When he became actively enlisted in any cause — and I never knew of his 
enlisting on any other terms — he was generally heard from, even unto 
the latest returns. When he was about, everybody was always aware 
of it. He was not peculiarly addicted to wasting time in trying to con- 
ciliate his enemies; but, on the other hand, he was never under the neces- 
sity of becoming reconciled to a friend. In the broad hospitality of his 
nature, he was too ready, perhaps, to join controversy with those who 
signified a desire for that sort of entertainment ; but he never by word or 
act offended one who did not first oifer him provocation, and he never 
found fault with — rarely, indeed, took issue with — ^those whom he loved. 

He had the faults, in short, which often attend a robust and fiery 
temperament, yet he had with them, qualities so noble, so truly heroic, 
that they did not lead him far astray, even in early life; and those who 
knew him best in his ardent manhood and his chastened age would have 
scarcely wished to see his character freed from faults, so venial that they 
seemed rather to emphasize his virtues. His warm'^and somewhat hasty 
temper involved him often in hot debate, and sometimes serious alterca- 
tion, but if occasionally unjust, he was never ungenerous, and the sun 
never went down on his anger excited by merely personal wrong. He 
was perhaps too prompt, as I have already intimated, to resent an affront 
or discourtesy, such as he would not himself oifer — ^for he was as punc- 
tilious as a paladin, and never saw the day when he wouldn't have waged 
battle, armed only with his cane, against the lance of Orlando. It was 
not often, however, that he felt or indulged purely personal resentment; 
his indignation was usually the brave, unselfish protest of a high-souled 
man against cruelty and wrong; a denunciation of brutal oppression in any 
form of the helpless and the weak. 

All these, however, are minor traits and little things on which it is 
tedious to dwell, when I reflect that I am speaking of a life shaped and 
controlled by convictions founded in the bed-rock of duty, and a character 
which, marred so slightly by common frailties, was overflowing with a 
God-like charity which might well have redeemed a multitude of sins. To 
rightly appreciate him, he must be regarded in that capacity wherein he 
wrought good, the extent of which is, perhaps, not yet fully realized — 
in his true character of the philanthropist, the good Samaritan. 

He belonged to that order of men who find their chiefest pleasure and 
most congenial occupation in the relief of the suflfering and friendless. He 
was of the brotherhood which num,bered in its ranks Las Casas and 
Howard. He began his mission of mercy when scarcely beyond his boy- 
hood. Just after he commenced the practice of medicine there, the cholera 
reached his little native village in its destroying march. It struck down 
its victims with every hour. The brave remained and died ; the timid fled. 
On almost every door was the mark of the pestilence, and in every house- 
hold wailing and great grief. He was young, full of hope and loved life, 
as does one so entirely fitted to enjoy it. He grappled with the scourge, 



148 KENTVCKT ELOQUENCE. 

and labored, yielding neither to despair nor fatigue, until the hideous 
visitant had passed on its way. 

For more than forty years after that time he was almost constantly 
engaged in battle — usually battle of his own seeking — with the two dread 
epidemics which have filled this land with mourning and terror. He served, 
I believe, through seventeen epidemic visitations of yellow fever. Not 
content to contend with it when it appeared in the localities where he was 
pursuing his profession, he sought to meet it wherever it prevailed with 
unusual malignity and its ravages were most alarming. I can not enumer- 
ate all these instances of his heroic devotion, but many of those who 
hear me will remember how, when the island of Nassau was attacked, he 
went thither to minister to the stranger, and how he earned the undying 
gratitude of the people of Tennessee by his services at plague-stricken 
Memphis. 

There can be no question that he learned more and knew more of 
this terrible scourge — knew better, at least, how to treat, or, rather, to 
nurse it — than any of the physicians who have talked and written so 
learnedly about it. He contended that, coming originally from Africa, 
or where, it mattered not, it had become naturalized in the soil and atmos- 
phere of the West Indies and South America, and was a constant menace 
to this country, against which a well-devised and strictly-executed quaran- 
tine only could protect us. While he believed that its propagation and 
extension depended on certain conditions, among which a certain long- 
continued degree of heat is one of the most important, he insisted that 
it could — given its introduction and those conditions — go and kill any- 
where. He insisted that, if it ever broke out in New Orleans so soon as 
the eariy part of July, there was imminent danger of its spreading through- 
out the United States. 

In the summer of 1878 his prediction was verified in fact, although 
not to the extent he feared. The fever having appeared quite early on 
the Gulf coast, suddenly burst out fiercely at Grenada and other points 
in the interior -of Mississippi, and, creeping up the Mississippi river, dealing 
death as it went, descended on the little town of Hickman, in Kentucky, 
with a wrath that appalled every heart. 

Dr. Blackburn, who was then making the canvass for the guberna- 
torial nomination, immediately quitted the political field and proceeded 
to Hickman. Many of his friends, myself among the number, begged him 
not to go. We urged that he had certainly performed his share of that 
sort of work, and that he ought not to risk his life again in an epidemic 
declared by all who had seen its havoc the most virulent which had ever 
scourged the country. He answered that because of that very fact it was 
his duty to go. 

I need not recite details; you are all familiar with them. You remem- 
ber how the little town was converted almost into a graveyard; how the 
gallant Cook, who insisted on accompanying Blackburn as aide, was slain 
by the fever almost as soon as he reached the field ; how other physicians 
died or fell. From the scanty population of the town, it was impossible 
to procure adequate attendance for the sick. Dr. Blackburn was com' 
pelled to be nurse as well as physician. In one squalid negro cabin a 
mother and five children, prostrated with the fever, were nursed by him, 
while he, as sole remaining physician, was treating all the other patients. 

At that date it was contended by some people that while the yellow fever 
might visit other places, it could not come to Louisville. That is to say — 



BASIL W. DUKE. I49 

although some unfortunate who had contracted it elsewhere might come 
there with the seeds of it in his system and die — an "indigenous" case could 
not occur there, and that, so far as Louisville was concerned, the disease 
was neither "infectious," "contagious," nor transportable. When a doctor 
undertakes to split hairs, he can discount any lawyer. Such a position 
seems to us now, in the light of experience, incredibly absurd. Yet there 
were many who wished to believe it then and did believe it. Dr. Blackburn, 
notwithstanding his long experience and the heroic labor he was then 
performing, was much censured because he would not subscribe to this 
opinion. Its learned and eloquent author received an ovation and was 
presented with a medal for his successful (?) demonstration that the 
dreaded fever could not molest the city in which he lived ; and at the very 
hour, as nearly as may be ascertained, when he was making his speech 
of acknowledgement, the disease broke out in Louisville, and the yellow 
fiend, in grinning derision, marked fifty foreheads with his livid finger, 
and fifty indigenous cases terminated fatally before another week. 

When elected chief magistrate of Kentucky, Governor Blackburn 
brought to that office the earnest and faithful attention to duty which had 
characterized him in private life. In calling the attention of the Legislature 
to the abuses in the administration of criminal justice which prevailed in 
certain sections of the State and the corrections therein he caused to be 
made, he rendered tTie State especial service. But he rendered a service 
to humanity as well as to Kentucky in the prison reforms he instituted. 
The penitentiary system which he found in existence and the condition 
of the one establishment for the confinement and correction of criminals 
which the State had when he became Governor is a theme it is not pleasant 
to dwell upon. It is enough to say that more than twelve hundred prisoners 
were confined in quarters which could not adequately accommodate miore 
than six hundred. It is not necessary to add that the sanitary regulations 
and discipline^of the prison could not be efficient, and that without attribut- 
ing deliberate cruelty on the part of those in charge of it, the wretches 
sent there for punishment were subjected to torture. 

To overlook a matter like this was an impossibility to Governor Black- 
bum. He lost no time in addressing a communication to the Legislature, 
suggesting measures of relief, and when that induced no response, he 
emphatically attracted public notice to the necessity of some action by 
pardoning a large number of the more infirm* and best behaved inmates 
of the penitentiary. Undeterred by criticism and undaunted by opposition, 
he persisted in this wise and humane work until popular opinion was com- 
pletely with him and he saw it crowned with success. He subsequently 
incurred much criticism on account of his frequent exercise of the pardon- 
ing power, a prerogative employed too freely, many people honestly 
thought, after the first and imperative necessity for its exercise had been 
satisfied. He doubtless did make some mistakes in this regard, but I am 
convinced that, on the whole, his policy was judicious as well as benevolent. 
At any rate, it was dictated by that mercy which urges forgiveness of the 
unfortunates who err and fall under the temptations which assail man on 
the better side of his nature — ^through his aflfections, or his ideals, right or 
wrong, of social duty. And if some will censure him for releasing a few, 
surely all will honor him for the ceaseless solicitude with which, aided 
by his noble wife, he sought to ameliorate the condition of the many who 
remained in that house of crime and bondage. 

The most devoted, the tenderest son, brother, father, husband, the 



160 KUTTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

truest, best friend, the domestic conduct and relations of Governor Black- 
bum may be examples to all men. While deeply religious in his feeling 
and inspired with the truest Christian spirit, he was not a man to be much 
possessed by sectarian zeal or bias. Like Abou Ben Adhem, his name will 
be written highest on the roll of those who love God, because he loved his 
fellowmen. 

And now that all is past for him in life, it is meet that he should 
be laid here. On this spot, surrounded by these graves, a Kentuckian 
may well believe that he hears the voice which spoke to Moses, saying: 
"The ground on which thou standest is holy ground." The soil of Ken- 
tucky has been the repository of heroic ashes since the dawn of her history. 
The red chieftains our fathers found here, hunting in her plains and 
forests, marked their rude paths with many a bloody grave; and the 
daring pioneers from whom: we are descended paid, in foray and combat, a 
heavy reckoning for the beautiful land they won and bequeathed to us. 
In every war this continent has witnessed since the date of her settle- 
ment, Kentucky sons have borne their part, and her dead are strewn from 
the Great Lakes to the Rio Grande and along the storied Cumberland 
and Potomac. With a mother's care she has essayed to gather together 
their sacred and precious remains, and, with a mother's tenderness, she 
holds them in her bosom. 

And here lie buried many of her noblest sons — more than one of her 
chief magistrates — some of the founders and bravest champions of the 
Commonwealth. Here Boone lies, quiet and still at last, after his long 
wanderings and restless life. Here Ballard rests, his fiery spirit and daunt- 
less resolution subdued in death. Here is stretched the stalwart form of 
Greenup, like a soldier sleeping when the march is over and the battle 
fought. Here Crittenden reposes in calm dignity, having done all that 
patriotism could suggest and eloquence accomplish for his native State. 
Here rest the dead heroes who bore Kentucky's flag and sustained her fame 
before the walls of Monterey and on the plains of Buena Vista, and O'Hara, 
scholar, soldier, poet, who, striving abreast with the bravest, survived a 
little while to immortalize their valor in sweet, loyal song — O'Hara has 
rejoined his comrades in this "bivouac of the dead." 

Here, too, should Luke P. Blackburn lie, amid kindred ashes and in 
worthy company, followed to his last couch by the benedictions of the 
people he served so faithfully and loved so well. 



GEORGE DuRELLE. 

[George DuRelle, Lawyer, Jurist, was born in York, N. Y., October 18, 
1852; educated in grammar school and at Yale College; removed to Louis- 
ville in 1869; taught school while attending law department University of 
Louisville, graduating in 1874; admitted to bar; Assistant United States 
Attorney for Kentucky, 1882-86 and 1889-91; Judge Court of Appeals of 
Kentucky, 1895-1902; appointed United States District Attorney, 1906.] 

Mckinley. 

An address delivered at a McKinley memorial meeting at Frankfort, Ky., 
September 19, 1901. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

The man we meet to-day to honor was, in his lifetime, often called a 
politician. In that word's best sense he was one. Policy means a settled 
form of government. Politic means wise and prudent. Politician means 
one versed in governmental science^ — a statesman. And while the words 
have often been in daily speech degraded to impute selfishness, intrigue 
and cunning, our mother tongue can ill afford to lose their better mean- 
ings. Let it then be said without reproach he was a politician, and the 
field of his life's work was politics. For that work, as for any which 
requires a man to guide his fellows, God had endowed him far beyond 
the common lot of man. A wise and just understanding, a high ambition, 
a perfect knowledge of his object, an infinite capacity for laborious care, 
a most serene and noble presence, a winning dignity of address, and a 
gracious charm of manner which could make refusal take on the form of 
favor — ^these were his. These were the tools with which he did his work, 
and, above all, a gift of tact which seemed to top the height of genius. 
Such tact as his could riot be found except with a kind heart and with an 
utter lack of that false pride which clings to non-essentials. Consistency, 
fetich of little men, inspired no awe in him. What name you called the 
thing he wished he did not care, so that the thing he wished was done. 
If the column stood strong and firm, it mattered little whether the capital 
was Doric or Corinthian or the surface bruised and marred. His tact, born 
of a kind heart, led him to avoid antagonism, and so he went about obstruc- 
tions and reached the goal where others would have driven headlong on 
defeat. Tact made obstructions stepping-stones to his success. Tact 
gained him time for needful preparation and drove political opponents 
to march in the van of his triumphal progress. And it was his tact which 
led him to push others forward to do the things which he wished done and 
leave to them the praise. With one who did so many things, there is 
no wonder that he was in the public eye so much. The wonder is that 
in the case of one who did so much, the recognition of his doing should 
so often have been tardy. Something of the wisdom of Washington he 
had in choice of men and means; that same infinite patience, too, to wait 
the time of harvest, and courage to seize the ripened grain. So he led, 
but seemed to follow ; moulded public opinion, but seemed guided by it. 

His was not one of those lonely souls, bom ahead of their epochs, which 



152 KEKTVCKY ELOQUENCE 

Stand like battered headlands in the sea, landmarks to mark the progress 
of the rise of continents and beacons to the upward pathway of mankind. 
In them there is at once something pathetic and sublime, something which 
stirs the heart and kindles the imagination. His usefulness was of a 
different order. He was born in his century and of it. He grew with it 
and aided in its growth. He was a part of his environment, but that 
environment was not a Chinese wall about him, cramping his growth 
and bounding his achievement. It furnished the materials with which he 
worked, the meat on which he grew. 

It would be foolish in ten minutes' talk to try to tell the list of things 
done by a man who did so much. I shall not try it. It is enough to say 
that, in his speech at Buffalo, before his taking off, he left a history of 
what he had accomplished and a forecast of his country's future. It is 
his best monument. It shows the man had grown as far beyond the 
policy embodied in the bill which bears his name as his country has 
outgrown the needs that bill supplied. It sounds the herald's note of the 
coming of an era of peaceful progress. It rings the changes on the golden 
rule. Peace and good will to men is the lesson it teaches; love one 
another; do unto others as you would that others should do unto you; 
reciprocity and not retaliation; exchange of benefits and not of bullets. 
In that speech was formulated the creed and aspirations of a great party. 
More, it states the wishes and the hopes of this great nation, and it marks 
the ending of an honorable life, a life of high endeavor and useful labor, 
a life of vast power well and wisely used — so used that when his hand 
dropped from the wheel, a tidal wave of sorrow swept about the globe, 
lapping with tears the shores of every island above which floats the flag 
he loved and fought for. 



THOMAS REUBEN DURRETT. 

[Thomas Reuben Durrett, Lawyer, Ldtterateur, was born in Henry- 
County, Kentucky, January 22, 1824. President of Filson Club. (See ex- 
tended sketch under his poem in back part of book.] 

When the State of Kentucky, on the 1st of June, 1892, had reached the 
age of one hundred years, the Filson Club celebrated the event, in Louisville, 
Ky., with an historical oration, an heroic poem and a public dinner, at which 
a number of post-prandial speeches, appropriate to the occasion, were made. 
The centennial or main oration was delivered by Colonel Reuben T. Durrett, 
the president of the Filson Club, under whose auspices the celebration was 
made. The first part of his oration was confined to the history of the dis- 
covery, exploration, settlement and autonomy of the new State; while the 
second presented its condition at the time of independence, its progress for 
the first century and its hopes for the future. The following extract is 
taken from the second part of this oration and embraces its closing para- 
graphs. 

WHAT A CENTURY HAS ACCOMPLISHED. 

. . . Such was the condition of Kentucky when she began her career 
as an independent State one hundred years ago, and three hundred years 
after the discovery of Columbus. The beginning of her statehood on the 
third centennial anniversary of the discovery of America is a coincidence 
that it is not likely her sons will forget. Through all time to come, the 
two events will move along the same pathway of centuries, separated only 
by the difference of time between the discovery of the one and the 
independence of the other. 

Standing as we do at the favored terminus of a hundred years of 
marvelous progress, our glad eyes rest upon the evidences of advancement 
in our own State that could not have been anticipated by the wisest. 
Could Clark and Shelby rise from their hallowed graves to-day and look 
upon their country, they would know it not. The same blue sky, with its 
bright sun by day and its pale moon by night is above us. The same 
broad land, with its rich soil and navigable rivers, is beneath us. The 
same healthful climate wraps us around and imparts its enlivening summer 
breezes and its chastening winter winds. All else, how changed ! 

The great forest which cast its dark shadow upon the land has passed 
away, and with it the wild beasts and wilder savages that infested it. 
In its stead we behold immense fields of grain and pastures of grass, 
sporting with the consenting breezes like ocean waves toying with the 
passing winds. Vast areas of denuded forest now covered with growing 
hemp and tobacco remind us of the trying days when the haughty Spaniard, 
fortified upon the shores of the Mississippi, shut out our products from 
the markets of the world. The roads first marked out by the sagacious 
buffalo, and afterward adopted by the pioneer, with their summer's dust 
and their winter's mud, have given place to macadam thoroughfares and 
to railroads on which the iron horse, unconscious of the burden of a 
thousand steeds behind him, bounds over hills, darts through mountains, 
springs across rivers and speeds along plains with the velocity of the 
eagle's flight. From our matchless rivers have disappeared the pirogue. 



154 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

the canoe, the keel and the barge propelled by sluggish oars and sails, 
and in their places we have those leviathans of omnipotent steam which 
glide along with their immeasurable cargoes as if the opposing winds and 
currents were but toys to allure them to their play. The broad prairies 
and the evergreen canebrakes, on which the buffalo and the deer grew fat 
for the food of man, are seen no more, and in their places the meadows 
of timothy and the pastures of bluegrass are the Eden of the Durhams 
and the Holsteins, of the SouthdoAvns and the Cotswolds. Orchards and 
vineyards and gardens and nurseries surround happy mansions on the hills 
and in the valleys and along the plains where the wild woods grew. The 
whole face of the country has'^been changed as if touched by the magician's 
wand, and the wilderness has been made to blossom as the rose. 

Two millions of inhabitants are spread over the one hundred and 
nineteen counties into which the State has been divided, showing an 
average increase of nineteen thousand souls for every year of the century 
that closes to-day. It is an intelligent, industrious and progressive popula- 
tion, engaged in most of the commendable pursuits of civilization. They 
have opened agricultural and mineral lands and erected manufactories, the 
surplus products of which go to enrich the markets of the world. They 
have built cities in different parts of the land, a single one of which has 
double the population and many times the wealth 'of the entire State when 
its independence began. 

While reaching this increase of population, they have made mistakes 
in legislation, as all civilized peoples have done in every age and clime. 
They blundered in finance, in 1818, when they created forty independent 
banks, and turned them loose to prey on the community with their paper 
capital of nearly $8,000,000. They were quick to discover their error and, 
at the end of two years, repealed the charters of these moneyless institu- 
tions. They have since established two hundred and fifty banks worthy 
to bear the name, which now meet the wants of the comm,unity with 
their solid capital of $35,000,000. They blundered in 1820, when they 
began their wild acts of relief, whose follies fed upon their own foolishness 
until they brought on that conflict between the old court of appeals 
and the new, which shook the Commonwealth to its center. Experience 
3 gain brought them wisdom, and they repealed the act establishing the 
new court and left the people to pay the debts they had contracted instead 
of looking to unconstitutional laws to avoid them. They blundered in 
internal improvements until they found the State staggering under a load 
of debts, with little of valuable works to show for the money they had 
cost ; and they blundered iq, the passage of ill-digested laws, to be quickly 
repealed; but, with all their folljes of legislation, the wisdom of their acts 
was greatly in the ascendent. 

They have three times renewed their first organic law, and each time 
made advances along the line of enlightened progress. The Constitution 
of 1799 did away with the Federal features of that of 1792 and brought 
the people nearer to the agents who were to administer their government. 
The Constitution of l85o improved upon that of 1799 in the interest of 
the people by making almost all offices elective and by opening wider 
and various avenues of progress. This was the first of our organic laws 
which looked to the education of the people, and it began the great work 
of setting apart forever, in the cause of popular education, the million 
of dollars obtained from the United States, with its increase from other 



THOMAS REUBEN DTJRRETT. 166 

sources. The educational fund was, at that time, more than g 1,300,000, 
and recently it has been increased by another $600,000 from the United 
States, which, with other accumulations, will swell the school fund to 
$2,300,000 at this date. It was under this Constitution also that the old 
and meaningless forms of pleading, inherited from rude ages, were abol- 
ished and codes of practice established in their stead. The last Constitution, 
of 1891, has departed widely from the beaten track of its predecessors 
and made radical changes, the wisdom or the folly of which time alone 
can determine. The makers seem to have honestly struggled to meet the 
wants of an advanced and progressive people, and it remains to be seen 
whether the changed and ever-varying conditions of our citizens have been 
sufficiently provided for in this instrument. 

In the interest of broad humanity, they passed the act of 1798, repealing 
the bloody code inherited from the mother country, which made our 
people liable to be hanged for no less than one hundred and sixty-five 
enumerated crimes. We can hardly realize that, as late as 1798, Ken- 
tuckians were subject to the death penalty of the law for larceny, perjury, 
arson, obtaining money under false pretenses, etc. They were a little 
slow and stealthy in doing so, but they repealed that disgraceful law by 
which a man was punished at the whipping-post, by omitting this degrading 
penalty from the revised statutes of 1870. They have established asylums 
for the insane and schools for the blind and the deaf and dumb and retreats 
for the aged and homes for the poor. Even their prisons are no longer 
those sickening dungeons which came down from the Dark Ages, but 
decent houses of confinement where mercy guards the victims and humanity 
allures them to reform. Like prudent heirs who have not squandered 
the estate bequeathed by their ancestors, they have not diminished the 
magnificent territory they obtained from Virginia, but have enlarged it. In 
the southwestern comer of the State they acquired from the Chickasaw 
Indians, in 1819, seven millions of acres, out of which the flourishing 
counties of McCracken, Ballard, Marshall, Carlisle, Calloway, Graves, 
Hickman and Fulton have been made. With a moral courage that never 
shrank from the candid expression of opinions on important subjects, they 
gave to their country" the resolutions of 1798-9 as the embodiment of the 
doctrine of State rights. These celebrated resolutions have shaped the 
political faith of leading parties ever since, and they seem destined to exert 
an undiminished influence for all time to come. 

The farmer has laid aside the rude and clumsy helps to his industry, 
and now uses implements which almost do his work for him. He opens 
his land and puts in his crop and cultivates it and gathers and prepares 
it for market by machinery that leaves him little to do with his hands. 
The mechanic who was a m'aker and mender of all kinds of things has be- 
come a specialist, and now we have an expert for every different occupa- 
tion. The house that was built by the carpenter of 1792 now requires 
the services of a cabinetmaker, the joiner, the plumber, the plasterer, the 
glazier, the painter, the mason, the turner, the upholsterer, and a dozen 
others, with an architect to direct the little army. Those great civilizers 
of the world, the newspaper and the printing press, have advanced, step 
by step, in progressive improvements until they have almost reached per- 
fection. There are newspapers in almost every village in the State, 
numbering something like three hundred in all, and turning out at a single 
issue seven hundred and fifty thousand impressions. There are printing 



166 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

presses, like the great Hoe of the Courier- Journal, with almost human 
intelligence, that print and fold twenty-five thousand eight-page papers 
in an hour. The first book printed in the State was issued from the 
hand-press of Maxwell & Gooche, at Lexington, in 1793. It required long 
and weary months of labor to get out a small edition of this little volume 
of ninety-six octavo pages. Such a book could now be sent out in a large 
edition from one of our principal publishing houses in a single week. 
All over our broad land, free schools have been established, in which 
the children of all citizens may acquire a good business education. If 
they would then extend their studies, there are private schools everywhere 
in which the higher branches of learning may be pursued; and if they 
would yet go farther, there are colleges at Danville and Richmond and 
Lexington and Georgetown and- Bardstown or St. Mary's in which a 
finished education may be obtained. There are medical schools and law 
schools and theological schools and schools of art and science and design 
and mechanics in which almost every branch of human knowledge is open 
to the student. There are public libraries and association libraries and 
special libraries and private libraries where the best books of all ages 
and countries are stored. Most of the leading religions of the times are 
represented and, with all of them combined in the interest of human souls, 
there is scarcely a nook or corner in which prayer and song and preaching 
may not be heard. Many of the church edifices of our cities are fine 
specimens of ecclesiastical architecture, and the tendency is to make these 
structures yet more worthy of the sacred office to which they are devoted. 
In every part of the State postoffices have been established, and in the 
leading cities letters and packages are delivered at the doors of those to 
whom they are addressed. More rapid than mail carriers in the trans- 
mission of news and knowledge, there are telegraph wires throughout the 
State over which electricity flashes messages regardless of time and space, 
and there are telephone wires over which the human voice, in conversational 
tones, is heard at distances where the thunders would be silent. That 
mysterious energy which thunders in the storm-cloud and gilds the darkness 
of the night with the glow of the mid-day sun, has been made to move 
machinery with a velocity hitherto unknown and to dispel the shadows 
of the night. Passenger cars, propelled by its invisible might, glide along 
the thoroughfares of our cities and provisions are being made to make 
it the motive power to draw immense trains of cars over the lines of the 
railroads extending over the vast country. We call this subtle agency 
electricity and assign to it possibilities for the future as great as its mysteries 
are now and have been in the past. Steam' engines have been placed 
in every position in which power is required. They ride on our railroads, 
they float on our rivers, they whirl in our factories, they know not weari- 
ness, nor require rest. By day and by night, in sunshine and in cloud, 
they cease not their mighty efforts. They perform the work which the 
entire population of the State could not do without them and exist among 
us as two millions of constant, unwearying toilers. Our people live in 
houses that differ from those of the last century as the palace of the 
prince differs from the hovel of the peasant. In the Croghan house at 
Locust Grove and the Clark house at Mulberry Hill, both of which have 
come down to us from the last century, we have specimens of the best 
style of the houses erected by our forefathers when they thought it safe 
to leave the forts and dwell in the open country. The Croghan is a 



THOMAS REUBEN DVRRETT. 157 

square house, built of brick, one story high, with two rooms on each 
side of a broad hall, while the Clark is a parallelogram, built of hewed 
logs, two stories high, with one room above and one below on each side 
of the hall. The style of the buildings that followed these pioneer 
structures was the basement house, with steps leading to the floor above 
the ground, and, finally, this was followed by what now prevails, in a 
strange mixture of the Gothic castle, the Italian villa, and the Elizabethan 
cottage with the Virginian mansion. A few who prefer comfort to display 
yet build the old manor houses, with large rooms and broad halls, inclosed 
by plain but solid walls. The "gas that lights and heats these houses, the 
furnaces that warm them, the water that flows through them, the photo- 
graphs that hang on the walls, the machine-made furniture that adorns 
the rooms, the mattresses of hair, the comforts of down, the porcelain, 
the glass, the gilded knives and forks and spoons, the plated ware, and, 
in fact, nearly^ all the articles of luxury or comfort are the work of the 
century which has just closed. It may be added that new kinds of meats, 
drinks, breads, vegetables and fruits are now placed upon the table for 
breakfast, lunch, dinner tea and supper at hours that would not have been 
tolerated by the pioneers. We have bored into the deep-seated rocks of 
the earth and penetrated great reservoirs of natural gas held down for 
untold ages by anticlinal axes and laid long lines of iron pipes to conduct 
it to our homes and our factories. Its smokeless light and its dirtless 
heat are as great improvements upon the coal fire and artificial gas light 
of our times as these were upon the wood fire and the tallow candle 
of our ancestors. We have had no dearth of historians to record these 
advances of our country and people, there having been no fewer than 
eighteen of them from Filson, in 1784, to Smith, in 1889, and yet there 
is room for one more to leave unsaid much that has been said, and to 
say what is to be said in a different style. We naturally incline to good 
opinions for John Filson, the first historian of Kentucky, in honor of whom 
cur club has been named, but, all prejudice aside, when we take into 
consideration the little history the new State had to be written in 1784, 
and allow for the superior deserts of his map of Kentucky and life of 
Boone, we must candidly say that the merits of his history have not 
been surpassed by those of any since written. 

With a bravery worthy of the chivalrous race from which they sprang, 
Kentuckians fought the Indian at home until his war-whoop no longer 
rang in the forest and his scalping-knife no longer gleamed at the cabin 
door. They followed him to Chillicothe and to Pickaway, to the Maumee 
and to Tennessee, to his mountain fastness and to his forest retreats, until, 
in 1794, at the Fallen Timbers, they dealt him that fatal and crushing 
blow from which he never sufficiently recovered to return to his favorite 
fighting and hunting grounds. Nor was their bravery of that narrow 
kind that risks life for self alone. They fought under Harrison at Tippe- 
canoe and on the Thames, under Jackson at New Orleans, under Houston 
in Texas and under Taylor and Scott in Mexico; and on every field they 
won a name that their descendants are proud to claim as a part of their 
glorious inheritance. And, alas! when cruel Fate decreed that their own 
country must suffer the horrors of civil war, and that they must meet 
their brothers and friends upon the field of battle, they shrank not from 
the duty to which conscience called. They sent to the Union army eighty 
thousand of their brave sons and to the Confederate army half as many 



158 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

more, making the largest number, in proportion to population, contributed 
by any State to the Civil War. They laid down their lives on many a 
well-fought field under their Confederate leaders, Johnston and Breckin- 
ridge and Preston and Buckner and Morgan and Duke and Marshall, and 
they fought not less nobly under Union commanders. 

All along the line of the century which closes its circle to-day, Ken- 
tuckians have made enviable names at home and abroad. Were we to 
attempt to enumerate them on this occasion, the day would pass and the 
coming night envelope us in darkness before the list could be completed. 
We rejoice that, among the first of philanthropists, her gifted son, John 
Breckinridge, drafted the law of 1798, which did away with the death 
penalty for all crimes except murder; that her learned lawyers, Harry 
Toulmin and James Blair, led the way of modern codes when they issued 
their review of the criminal law in 1804; that her ingenious inventors, John 
Fitch and James Rumsey, had mastered the principles of the steamboat 
in 1787, and that Thomas H. Barlow invented the Planetarium and made 
a model of the first locomotive in 1826. They point with pride to their dis- 
tinguished surgeons, Walter Brashear, who, in 1806, first amputated the 
thigh at the hip joint, and Ephraim McDowell, who became the father 
of ovariotomy in 1809. Two' Presidents of the United States and four 
vice-presidents first saw light in Kentucky homes, and another of her 
favored sons was chief executive of the Confederate States. They have 
been United States cabinet officers and justices and speakers and ministers 
abroad and have filled the highest rank in the army and navy. They have 
been the governors, the lieutenant-governors, the legislators and the judges 
of sister States. Such statesmen as Clay and Crittenden, such orators 
as Menifee and Marshall, such journalists as Prentice and Penn, such 
poets as O'Hara and Cosby, such artists as Jouett and Hart, have made 
fame for themselves and their State which bore their names to every 
portion of the civilized world. I refrain from allusions to the distinguished 
living, though the effort at suppression is hard, knowing as I do that any 
enumerating of them would require more time than can be given on this 
occasion. 

We may not presume to peer into the dark unknown and attempt to 
foretell what is to come, but the data of the past and the present are 
suggestive of the future. None of us now present can hope to witness 
another Kentucky centenary. All of us will be laid to rest with the occu- 
pants of our cities of the dead before this day can make its return. Even 
those who shall then be here will not, probably, see our population 
increased by such a ratio as accompanied the years of the century just 
closed. Half a dozen or more millions may then be here engaged in the 
different pursuits of life. They will not abandon the municipalities, nr.r 
those bluegrass lands perennially enriched by the decaying limestone on 
which they rest; but a new center of population and industry and wealth 
will be then found in our mineral regions. The coal and iron underlying 
twelve thousand square miles of mountainous country that the pioneers 
deemed of no practical use will give to these lands a value beyond that 
of the bluegrass fields. The coal will be lifted from its bed of ages and 
sent abroad to warm the people and move the machinery of the world. 
The iron will be mined and welded into bands to unite the nations of the 
earth. Railroads will rush through the mountain valleys and furnaces 
and factories will glow along their lines. A hardy population of miners 



THOMAS REUBEN DVRRETT. 169 

will build their cottages upon the hillsides and mountain slopes and the 
rugged country will be changed from a wilderness tO' a region of picturesque 
beauty. The mountaineers thus brought in contact with enlightening 
industries, and in full view of the glories of the advancing world around 
them, may cease those vendettas which have disgraced humanity, and 
become an industrious, thriving and progressive people. With half a 
dozen millions of inhabitants farming upon our bluegrass plains, and 
mining in our mountains, and grazing stock upon our hills, and manufac- 
turing in our cities, and cultivating the arts and the sciences everywhere, 
Kentuckians of the century to come may rejoice in the blessings of a 
country as far in advance of ours as the one we enjoy is beyond that of 
the pioneers. 

The frowning mountains and the rugged hills 
Will yield to plastic art; and, to the hum 
Of wheels and the ring of anvils, uncounted, 
Joyous tongues will swell Industry's chorus 
Until the earth, the waters, and the air 
Resound with the harmonies of progress. 
Onward, still onward and forever, will 
Be the watchword until millions of feet 
Threading the byways of spreading commerce 
And myriads of hands manipulating 
The useful arts have made the wilderness 
Of the everlasting rock-ribbed mountains 
To blossom as the rose. 

When that glorious time shall come, we who close the first and open 
the second century of our statehood to-day will not be forgotten by those 
who may participate in the second centenary; but we may be remem- 
bered as a happy people on an emerald isle in the midst of the river of 
centuries, whose joyous voices, resounding through the ages and mingling 
with those on the shore of 1792 and with those on the shore of 1992, 
will unite them into one grand harmony of kindred sounds. 



THOMAS T. EATON. 

[Thomas T. Eaton, D. D., Pastor of Walnut-street Baptist Church, Louis, 
ville, Ky., was born in Murfreesboro, Tenn., November 16, 1845; ordained to 
Ministry, 1870; held Pastorate in Lebanon, Chattanooga, Tenn., and Peters- 
burg, Va.; Author of many books; Editor of "The Western Recorder," since 
1887.] 

LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE BEFORE MEN, THAT THEY MAY 

SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS, AND GLORIFY YOUR 

FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN. 

A sermon delivered at the Fifty-seventh Annual Conclave Knights Tem- 
plar, at Frankfort, Ky., May 18, 1906. 

This is a dark world through which people are stumbling to their 
doom. From hearts conscious of their need there goes up the Ajax cry 
for light, and the Macedonian call, ''Come over and help us," appeals to 
us from all directions. The way has been made in which men can escape 
all evil and secure all good. This way is not known to all, and many who 
could know it if they would, do not ask for it, loving darkness rather 
than light. This great need, all the greater because not appreciated, 
appeals to the heroic element in character, and calls for the highest 
chivalry. Herein is the ideal of Christian knighthood, which finds an 
expression in the noble order under whose auspices we are gathered 
here. Our fellowmen, in direct need and in direst peril, are stumbling 
in the darkness. It is ours to give them light, that they may see, and be 
persuaded to walk the way that leads from the ruin of sin, along the path 
of duty, to the glories that lie beyond. This is the highest ideal that has 
ever caught the eye, stirred the hearts and nerved the arms of noble men — 
the ideal of Christian knighthood. 

Many ideals have appeared in history, and in proportion to their noble- 
ness and to the vigor with which they have been pursued has been the 
greatness of the people who cherished them. No people ever became great 
who did not have an ideal, noble in some respects, and they rose in pre- 
cisely those excellencies with which they vested their ideal. 

The ideal of the Greeks was perfect beauty, physical and mental, and 
in that they reached an elevation unequaled in all the world. "Beautiful as 
a Greek statue" is the highest praise to be called forth by physical beauty. 
The statues that have come down to us from the Greeks have been alike 
the admiration and despair of all the artists since. These statues are but 
the embodiment of the forms and features to be seen any day on the 
streets of ancient Athens. In beauty of architecture, too, the Greeks have 
led the world. Even in its shattered ruins, as it crowns the Acropolis, the 
Parthenon to-day is the most beautiful building on the earth. What 
must it have been in its glory, when the great Apostle, standing on Mars 
Hill, and pointing to it, said that God "dwelleth not in temples made by 
hands!" The smallest fragment of ancient Greek art is at once recognized 
by a beauty all its own, which has been unapproached through the ages. 

Mental beauty, too, was sought by the Greeks, and with a success that 



THOM A8 T- EATON. 161 

has surpassed all other people. Their poets, philosophers and orators still 
command the admiring reverence of all the world. ' No country furnishes 
such a bright galaxy in the firmament of intellect as does little Greece. 
The thinking of the world is still dominated by Aristotle, Socrates and 
Plato, with whom human thought reached its high-water mark, beyond 
which it has never gone in all the ages since beauty, physical and mental, 
was sought and attained by the Greeks as by no other people that have 
come after them. 

But, grand as was their ideal, so far as it went, and admirable as were 
their efforts to attain unto it, their nation fell because of the imperfection 
of that ideal. 

They sought for physical and mental beauty, but they had not the 
true light and perceived not the grandeur and glory of spiritual beauty. 
Radiant with the beauty of Eden, and gifted with the genius of the immor- 
tals, their ideal was stained with vice and weakened with impurity. The 
very gods they worshiped were immoral. They saw not the necessity for 
purity of private character, and their nation withered before the breath 
of moral pollution, till the Greek became treacherous, false and cowardly. 
And there is no sadder commentary to the nations as the grandeur and the 
indispensableness of virtue than the noble ruins which yet crown the brow 
of the Acropolis and look down sadly upon the city whose glory has 
departed forever. 

Next came the Roman ideal of perfect obedience to law. To be a 
brave soldier and afterward a victorious general was the highest ambition 
of a Roman youth in those days when to be a Roman citizen was itself 
a glory. However stem the discipline required, he accepted it readily. 
It was his heroic aim to endure all hardships, suffer all privations, accept 
all sacrifices demanded by rigorous law and inflexible military discipline, 
that he might be trained and fitted for his country's service and his 
country's glory. And the success was worthy the effort. That was a 
noble race of iron men who welded all Italy into a sword for the world's 
conquest and inscribed the image and superscription of Caesar over all the 
face of civilization. Here and there among other nations a general has 
arisen worthy to be mentioned along with the great Romans, but Rome 
counted her great warriors by the score. 

Two ideals swayed Europe during the Middle Ages, the monk and 
the knight. Whatever may be said of the results of the monastery, there 
was originally underlying the institution a great truth. It was founded 
upon the necessity of keeping the body under, a necessity too little heeded 
in these days in which we err as far upon the one side as the monks erred 
upon the other. The monkish ideal was right on this point, in that they 
so\ight to conquer fleshly lusts, but wrong in the methods they pursued 
to secure this result. But Jhey had their reward in the success they 
achieved. Their orders spread rapidly over Europe, and their heroic efforts 
to convert the heathen challenge our admiration. They had great strength 
for labor, great power of endurance, and a stern imperviousness to tempta- 
tion worthy of recognition. What was wealth to a mian whose clothing 
was sack-cloth, who wore no ornaments, owned no house, and ate only 
the cheapest food? Bribery of such men was impossible; for them avarice 
had no power, luxury no charm and poverty no terror. No wonder the 
world and the flesh were aghast before those famine-wasted forms and 
devoted spirits for whom their most alluring temptations had no charms. 

10 



162 KEl^TUCKY ELOQUEl^CE 

Before the earnest efforts of monks, idol after idol went down forever. 
Jupiter and Apollo followed Baal and Astarte into oblivion. Saxon and 
Goth, Northman and Briton, Frank and Hun, yielded to the faith of the 
monks, and through Europe, as well as in Asia and Africa and the isles of 
the sea, the cross arose above the crumbling altars of the ancient gods. 

But their ideal was defective. They sought to weaken their bodies 
in order to overcome evil desires; and their scourgings, nail-wearings, 
fastings and various penances reacted to the overthrow of their ideal. Yet 
we honor men who were ready to undergo any toil and suffer any hardship 
with no thought of their own pleasure. While we may innocently indulge 
in harmless pleasure, yet this is not grand or heroic. The noblest character, 
be he stoic, monk or apostle, thinks little of pleasure and cares not for 
personal gratification. There are flowers for the bridal garland, blossoms 
for the May queen's crown, but for the brow of the hero only the grey 
of the olive, only the green of the laurel. 

While the monks placed before them the ideal of piety, strengthened 
by overcoming the flesh, the laymen strove to reach the knightly ideal, the 
noblest of them all. The ideal of chivalry was courage, truth and fidelity, 
founded upon faith in Christ and obedience to Him; and the results upon 
noble natures are seen in the characters of Bayard and Sidney. All through 
the knight's training religious duties were strictly inculcated and depend- 
ence upon God always emphasized. Taught by the Romans that there 
could be no excellence in a character untrained to obedience, the father 
sent his son at seven years of age to the castle of a friend to be trained. 
There for seven years he remained as page for the ladies who taught 
him to read and to pray. He rendered menial service as butler and 
footman. At the age of fourteen, his services were transferred from the 
ladies to the knight whom he served for seven years as squire. The menial 
duties continued; he must clean the armor, look after the horse and the 
clothing of the knight, follow him to the field, hold his second horse in 
battle, succor him when wounded and carry him from the field when dead. 
Fourteen years were thus spent in menial service in learning the great 
lesson of obedience, and this, not for the poor and the lowly, but for 
those of noble birth and lofty station, the sons of dukes and of kings. 

At the age of twenty-one, the squire became a knight and went forth 
to redress wrongs, to protect the weak, to honor women, to be faithful 
to his leader and to never turn his back upon a foe. And the face of 
Europe changed under the power of the knights. To be generous and 
merciful was as much a duty and a glory as to be brave and renowned 
in war; to have succored the needy, relieved the suffering and freed the 
oppressed, as to have subdued a city or to have routed an army. 

But the defect in the knightly ideal led to its downfall, though not 
to its overthrow, for the best of it still remains, and some of its repre- 
sentatives are gathered here. The spirit of medieval knighthood, grand in 
many things, was wrong in its pride of birth. Menial service was noble 
only when rendered by the nobly born. Receiving the lesson conveyed 
by Christ's washing His disciples' feet; chivalry recognized that the man 
ennobles the act, but did not learn the kindred lesson from our Lord's 
being the reputed son of a carpenter, and refused to recognize any nobility 
in the lowly born. Thus there grew up a haughtiness which gradually 
led the knights to refuse to submit to the long term of servitude and led 
them to desire costly armor and large retinues, till the love of money and 



THOMAS T. EATON. 163 

of pleasure debased their characters, and their "cups became heavier than 
their swords." 

The highest order of knighthood was the Knights Templar, founded 
early in the twelfth century and taking their name from their first quarters 
on the site of Solomon's Temple. In 1138 A. D., Hugh de Paganis, of 
Burgundy, and eight comrades solemnly bound themselves to guard the 
roads for pilgrims to sacred shrines, "to live as canons, and to fight for 
the King of Heaven, in charity, obedience and self-denial." The order 
spread rapidly and, in A. D. Il50, we find them in Castile, in Rochelle, 
in Languedoc, in Rome, in Brittany, and in Germany. Alphonso I. 
bequeathed them one-third of his dominions; Louis VII. regulated his 
army according to the order of these knights and granted them land near 
Paris, which became known as the "Temple," and was their headquarters. 
Their lofty courage was everywhere acknowledged. At Damietta they 
were "first to attack and last to retreat." Governments confided in them, 
and both in London and in Paris royal treasure was entrusted to their care. 
The honor of knighthood was held so high that a captive knight was 
ever released on his simple promise that he would go among his people 
and raise the sum required for his ransom. The captive knight, too, was 
consulted as to what sum he could raise "without inconvenience," since they 
were unwilling to straiten a knight so that he "should not live well and keep 
up his honor." 

We read of three special orders of knights, the Hospitallers, with 
black mantles and white crosses, whose special care was the sick and 
wounded; the Teutonics, with their white mantles and black crosses, 
confined to the ranks of German noblemen, and the Templars, with 
their white mantles and red crosses, whose functions I have described. 
These orders were entirely distinct from the Knights of Arthur's Round 
Table, and from the Paladins of Charlemagne, just as these were distinct 
from the Equites of Rome. 

The Templars were the noblest of all the orders of knighthood, be- 
cause it was theirs to "fight for the King of Heaven," to be aggressive for 
righteousness, to resist evil, to protect weakness and to relieve distress. 
Their high purpose was, and is, to let their light shine in the darkness of 
the world, reflecting from their, knightly persons the light that gleams 
from the cross of our Redeemer, so that all men may see the way that 
leads to peace and to glory. That is the use of light, to illumine the world 
that men may find their way through it, and not stumble into the abyss. 

Unlike the various orders of nobility, which are by inheritance, knight- 
hood rests upon merit. Each man who is enrolled as a knight is supposed 
to have a knightly character. The name is the mark of a high character. 
To shine it is necessary to bum, and so that which shines must be of 
right material. Clay does not shine, nor stone. To let our light shine 
we must have hearts on fire with love to God and with zeal for the good 
of mankind. Men whose souls do not kindle at the thought of God's love 
and grace and at the thought of human suffering and need are incapable of 
knighthood. 

"Let your light so shine." Allow nothing to interrupt its beams. 
Michael Angelo placed a light on his head that his own shadow might not 
fall upon his work. The greatest care is taken that the glass of the light- 
houses be kept clear and clean, that the light be not dimmed. The 
Christian must let nothing interfere with his shining. Any inconsistency, 
any wrong-doing on his part, will dim his light and may be the occasion 



164 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

of disaster to some soul needing that light. The safety of all the craft 
afloat within range of the light-house is imperiled if the light be dimmed 
or shadowed. Let your light so shine. It will shine if you give it a 
chance. 

Go forth, then, Knights Templar, on your high mission of duty and 
of glory. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good 
works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." In the beginning of 
your history, your home was the Temple at Jerusalem in its ruins. In the 
consummation of your history, your home is the Temple of the Skies, 
"not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," that Temple whose walls 
are salvation, whose gates are praise, and the "Lamb is the light thereof." 
Let your light shine forth clear and strong amid the world's darkness, 
until the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings, flooding 
the earth with his glory, and all the foul spirits which have so long held 
high carnival amid the darkness of the world's shadows shall be driven 
into the outer darkness that knows no morrow. And in that shadowless 
world of glory, your light shall gleam with a radiance unknown to earth, 
for "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and 
they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." 



WILLIAM REED EMBRY. 

[William Reed Embry, Lawyer and Editor, Danville, Ky., was bom in 
Mercer County, Kentucky, October 8, 1877. Graduated from Centre College 
in 1897; Valedictorian of Centre College Law School in 1901; entered news- 
paper business in 1903; Editor of the Danville News; Democratic Elector 
Eighth Kentucky District in 1904; Representative from Boyle County in 
Kentucky Legislature in 1906.] 

THE MEN WHO FOUGHT, AND THE WOMEN WHO WAITED. 

An address delivered at the Confederate Memorial Exercises and Decora- 
tion of Confederate graves at Lexington, Ky., June 2, 1906. 

Mr. Chairman, Daughters of the Confederacy, Confederate Veterans, 
Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Standing on this sacred soil, hallowed by the memory of your mighty 
dead, I wish first to tender my sincere thanks to the Daughters of the 
Confederacy for the honor conferred upon me by this invitation, so that, 
should I be rendered speechless by the emotions of this hour, I shall at 
least in a feeble way have expressed my appreciation of your kindness. 

The chivalry of Kentuckians, of which we are justly proud, is known 
through the length and breadth of this republic, and not without cause, 
for the gallantry of a Kentucky gentleman is kindled by the greatest 
inspiration that ever taught men how to die^ — Kentucky's womanhood. 
Since the daring daughters of the early pioneers braved death at the hands 
of ruthless savages to supply their Husbands and loved ones with the crystal 
waters of historic old Bryan's spring, there has never breathed in any 
country, in any clime, a braver, sweeter, purer womanhood than that which 
blossoms in the bluegrass section of old Kentucky. To their tender minis- 
trations, and that of their devoted sisters of the South, the Confederacy 
owes a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. 

The place for holding these exercises is peculiarly appropriate to the 
subject, seeing, as we do, all around us the handiwork of an All- wise 
Creator. The eternal fitness of things is whispered on the breeze as it 
gently waves the grass out yonder above our heroic dead, where rest in 
the tender embrace of earth the immortal Cluke, Hanson, Morgan, Breck- 
inridge and others; and as the sunbeams kiss the flowers that will soon 
be spread by loving hands above their last resting place, its light will fall 
upon the red rose and the snow-white lily, mingled together, as fit emblems 
of the red blood that dyed to a crimson hue the battlefields of the South, 
wiping out forever the pure, white lives that were a nation's greatest pride. 

Of the men who fought and the women who could only wait, I shall 
speak a few brief words this morning. In the long, dreary days, and more 
desolate nights, which were spent in their lonely homes during the great 
struggle in the sixties, the mothers, wives and daughters passed through 
periods of uncertainty and anxiety that were more fearful than the 
baptism of fire that greeted their loved ones at the front. But never did 
they falter in their courage and self-sacrifice. 

Men may achieve, but it is the women who endure, dauntless and 



166 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

undismayed, to the end. When the last cannon had spoken and defeat 
and ruin cast their sombre sable of despair across a stricken land, it was 
the glorious womanhood of the Confederacy that clasped the torn and 
bleeding hands of the heart-broken soldiers across the graves of their fallen 
comrades and bade them cast their eyes to the future and put their trust 
in Him who tasted the agonies of Gethsemane, yet was undismayed. 

Theirs was the office to bind up the wounds, to soothe and comfort 
the sick and dying; and now, after the lapse of years has softened their 
grief and Nature has administered a surcease to regret in the lengthening 
shadows of advancing age, it is to them that future generations shall 
acknowledge their indebtedness for the beautiful statues of bronze and 
monuments of marble that dot our beloved Southland, bearing testimony 
to the valor of Southern arms and the glory of defeat. 

It is a noble and unselfish work, these memorial exercises to the 
heroes in gray. Though victory perched not upon their banner, though their 
cause was lost forever, still they live upon the lips and in the hearts of 
those who love them, as proud of them in disaster as was ever Spartan 
mother of those sons brought home upon their shields. 

May the luster that surrounds the splendor of Southern valor be never 
dimmed, and may the sweet incense from the shrine of woman's love 
forever brighten the pathway of man's existence here until the great 
Archangel claims his own. 

In the great Valhalla, where the immortal souls of departed heroes 
meet in loving companionship, where there is no sorrow in defeat, no 
bitterness in failure, no wormwood in the cup of contentment and no 
reserve in the fellowship of universal regard that should characterize the 
truly great, it must be a source of never-failing delight to witness from 
that beautiful Beyond the tender and sacred devotion with which those 
dear hearts on earth have entwined their affections with unyielding bonds 
around the memory of their consecrated dead. 

Soldiers of the Confederacy and members of the heroic Orphan's 
Brigade, in the name of the young men of Kentucky, I bring to you a 
loving greeting of devotion, and if ever we are called upon to shoulder 
arms in the defense of hearth and home, we shall ever have before us 
as an example and guide the deathless valor of you, my countrymen, who 
so gladly offered your lives for a hopeless cause. 

That war-stained suit of gray, worn so honorably and so well, is a 
passport into every Southern heart and home. 

That blue-barred emblem upon your breast is more honorable than the 
''Star and Garter," for your deeds of valor have laid upon your shoulders 
the sword of imperishable knighthood and placed upon your brow the 
laurel wreath of undying glory that shall remain fresh and green in the 
hearts of your countrymen, and generations yet unborn shall do honor to 
your memory. 

"Hail them, Hills! and sing, Rivers, in welcome! O, Sky, 
Light your fairest star fires as the old troops march by! 
They come to their own — 
Where their glories are known. 

And the song on Love's lips, and the lights in Love's eye! 
They come, crowned of glory; 
Fame knows their white story; 
Love clasps and believes fhem, 
And Honor receives them; 



WILLI AM REED EMBRT. 167 

And 'welcome' is rending 

Around earth and sending 

Its music on high! 

This is the land they fought for; 

This is the proud soil they wrought for 

In the great days gone by! 

With glory and honor we crown them to-day, 

For God's in the glory that gleams from the Gray!" 

Nothing that I can say will add to, or detract from, one iota of your 
fame, for it is already written in blazing letters upon the pages of history. 
Along with the names of Alexander and Napoleon stand those of Lea 
and Johnson; but their resemblance stops with their matchless generalship. 
For the campaign of the latter was not one for the conquest of foreign 
lands or the spoils of war, neither was it to satisfy the unbounded ambition 
of an unscrupulous leader, but it was in the defense of home. What a 
magic word! Who would not die for its preservation? Around it are 
clustered the fondest recollections of a happy childhood; beneath its roof- 
tree there lingers the protecting spirit of departed loved ones, and across 
its threshold the prattle of baby tongues has made a welcome more 
sincere than ever graced the triumphal miarch of Caesar's conquering host. 
Is it a wonder, then, that in their defense you accomplished feats that 
won the admiration of the civilized world? Is it a wonder that Southern 
soil, from Florida's sandy wastes to Kentucky's bluegrass fields, covers 
the forms of thousands of her heroic slain?" But they did not die in vain. 

Was it in vain that General A. P. Hill sacrificed his life in the terrible 
slaughter of Petersburg? Was it in vain that Albert Sidney Johnston died 
a hero's death on the bloody field of Shiloh ? Was it in vain that Stonewall 
Jackson, the greatest strategist of his age, gave up his pure and spotless 
life in the Wilderness of old Virginia ? 

Truly, "the paths of glory lead but to the grave," but the glory of 
these men shall live after them in the dawning ages to be a watch-word 
of love and affection to their countrymen. 

I wish I had the words at my command to express the love and honor in 
which the people 'of Kentucky hold the memory of another of those 
heroic slain. Many of those before me have followed that fearless leader 
over the hills and valleys of Kentucky and Tennessee. With him you 
have crossed many streams, from the beetling cliffs of the Cumberland 
to the muddy banks of the Ohio. You have often been aroused before 
the first streak of dawn had crimsoned the east, by the clarion notes of 
the bugle call to resume a long and dreary march, or awakened in the 
still hours of the night by the warning crack of the sentry's rifle to face 
an unknown enemy -of unknown power. When your lagging strength was 
almost spent and you wavered and fell from your saddles with exhaustion, 
you have been cheered and incited by the mere presence of that superb 
man to do still more daring deeds and endure hardships that seemed 
beyond the power of human nature. It is needless for me to tell you, 
whom he loved so well, that this soldier and hero was your own heart's 
idol — General John H. Morgan. 

With the name of Morgan, there always occurs to me the name of 
another who was also the pride of this district and this great Common- 
wealth; of a man who, at the age of forty-five, had filled nearly every 
office in the gift of the people and whose integrity and intelligence in their 
administration has never been surpassed. In appearance he was handsome 



168 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

and of an imposing stature and figure, a bom leader of men. His ability 
as an orator is unequaled in Kentucky's history, a State noted for its men 
of eloquence; but it was as a soldier that you loved him most, for it was 
then that his gallant conduct endeared him to the hearts of all the Southern 
people. That charge led at Stone River is unsurpassed in American history 
for personal bravery. Erect upon his charger, he leads the dash for the 
bridge, while the incessant roar of the hundred cannon placed against him 
is fairly appalling, and the whistling lead, as it plows through the ranks, 
reaps a rich harvest of death and destruction; his captains and lieutenants 
fall, one by one, at his side until there is hardly left one to whom he 
may give his orders, yet he never falters for an instant, though his clothes 
were riddled with bullets and his horse shot from under him. 

It is with sadness that I see pictured before me another period of 
his eventful career. Tis the vision of a solitary horseman threading his 
weary way through the bridle paths of a Southern forest. That old 
war-horse that had carried its rider through many a hard-fought battle, 
with head erect and nostrils dilating, is now beating his last retreat with 
lagging steps and lowered head. On the handsome face of his rider there 
is stamped the sad, far-away look of a man whose last hope had sunk 
beyond the horizon of an everlasting impossibility. Sheltered and befriended 
by those for whom he had given his all, he at last reaches the coast and 
embarks from his native shore where, for four long and dreary years, 
unhonored and unknown, he wanders, an exile in a foreign land. Upon 
returning home, he was too proud to ask for a pardon and in a few years 
he died, a broken-hearted man. Here, in this beautiful city of the dead, 
beneath the shadow of yonder towering monument of Henry Clay, there 
rests to-day in an unpardoned grave the body of one of Nature's truest 
and grandest noblemen — General John C. Breckinridge. 

There are many others whose untarnished diadem of glory will illumine 
the pathway of the South forever. If I had the time, I might name a 
thousand of those gallant sons of Mars whose deeds of heroism are forever 
chronicled in a grateful people's memory and filed away in the archives 
of a nation's glory. 

The charge of the Light Brigade, immortalized in verse by Tennyson, 
could never have been more desperate or more determined than that of 
Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. With five thousand men, the flower of the 
Southern army, Pickett is ordered to charge the heights and capture the 
guns of the enemy. Up they go, the evening sun glinting upon their set 
bayonets as they charge into that withering fire; never wavering, though 
half their number lay dead or dying upon the field, they at last reach the 
top and, with one scattering volley, climb through the blinding flame and 
smoke over the entrenchments and drive the enemy from their guns. But, 
alas! the position so dearly won they are compelled to abandon on account 
of their decimated numbers; then they march back over the mangled 
bodies of their comrades, bathing their feet in the priceless blood of a 
nation's chivalry, while wonder and admiration stay the hand of the 
Northern gunners as they watch their retiring ranks. 

Gettysburg was the turning point of the war. For two years the 
Confederate army had sent back shattered and defeated every force they 
had encountered, but it was not in the range of the possible that they 
should finally succeed against such overwhelming odds; and, after Gettys- 
burg, it was a desperate and hopeless struggle until, foot-sore, ragged and 
starving, they surrendered at Appomatox. Ah, how they begged for one 



WILLIAM REED EMBRT. 169 

more charge, just for a chance to offer up their lives upon the altar of 
their country, dreading death not half so much as defeat. But Robert 
E. Lee, that master spirit of the war, who had already prolonged it for 
two years by his unequaled genius and perseverance, realized that it was 
useless to sacrifice more lives in a further prolongation of the struggle. 

After the surrender of Appomattox, the South embarked upon another 
struggle as relentless as the one through which she had just passed — ^the 
struggle for existence. 

See that old soldier in tattered gray returning home, beaten, over- 
whelmed, but undaunted ! Not marching to the tunes of martial bands of 
music, hailed by the welcome cries of a victorious nation, embraced in 
the arms of loved ones at home, but, trudging on through wasted fields 
and deserted hamlets, he finds his crops destroyed, house dismantled and 
family fled. There may be left to him, alas ! the remembrance of an only 
son, the joy and pride of his declining years, left on some distant blood- 
stained field of battle, cold and still, gone to join the over-crowded ranks 
of those who gave their lives for the Lost Cause. 

Did he give up in hopeless despair and grief? Did he sit down, with 
folded arms, in the ashes of his deserted home, crying: "All is lost"? 
No, for he was made of sterner stuff. Consider for a moment his con- 
dition. Pitiless and unrelenting, starvation stalked abroad in that one-time 
land of plenty. The terrible pestilence of civil war had passed over 
her prostrate form, leaving her maimed and wounded, with the fangs of 
that great monster. Reconstruction, at her throat, dripping with the warm 
blood of her noble sons now cold in death. Those broad plantations, with 
waving sugar cane and snow-white fields of cotton, that were wont to 
resound to the rollicking songs of the laborer at his task, are hushed in 
ruin. The evening breeze, as it stirs the pine-tops clustered around the now 
deserted manor house, brings to the ear no sound save the lonesome cry 
of the cricket or the hoarse croak of a frog in some distant marsh. Atlanta, 
that great and beautiful city, that sat so proudly upon her hills, filled by 
thousands of happy families, is razed to the ground by the ruthless torch 
of the invader as he cut his broad swath of desolation and destruction 
to the sea. 

From the ruins of a dead and broken South, dead in fact, but not in 
memory, there has arisen, thank God, a Southland that knows no equal 
and recognizes no superior on earth, a South that shall ever tenderly 
cherish the memory of those who bled and died for her dear sake. 

It has been said that the South lives too much in her past. She does 
not live in her past, but in her own great present and greater future, yet 
it would be strange, indeed, did not the isle of her memory hold within 
its green borders the priceless inheritance of those who freely offered and 
gave their lives in her defense; and those little, square, white tombstones 
in this and every other Southern cemetery bear mute but eloquent testimony 
of how freely they were given, while many a nameless, unmarked grave 
on the site of where some wild charge was made, holds enshrined therein 
the heart of some mother, wife or daughter, longing in vain "for the 
touch of a vanished hand and the sound of a voice that is still." Statues 
of bronze and gold may crumble, slabs of granite may decay, but so long 
as this nation lives it will honor and reverence those heroes who once wore 
the gray. 

Over forty years have passed since the war, and the prejudice and 
rancor which engendered the strife has disappeared forever. The hand of 



170 KENTUVKT ELOQUENCE. 

comradeship and love which Grant extended to Lee at Appomattox has 
been stretched forth from North to South, wiping out Mason and Dixon's 
line and obliterating all unworthy feelings, leaving only a common heritage 
of just pride in those who participated in a struggle in which both sides 
gained a renown that will ech'o down the ages, outstripping the march 
of time and extinguished only at the portals of Eternity. 

A land without sentiment is a land without history. A people who 
are callous to the memory of their mighty dead are lacking in the first 
principles of patriotism and unworthy to be called the sons of such 
illustrious ancestry. We are the heirs of the ages, and it is our duty, nay, 
more, it should be our great pleasure to commemorate in every way 
possible the deeds of those who have made these United States the "Land 
of the free and the home of the brave," and Kentucky the brightest star 
in the constellation of her sister States. 

Most of those who fought in the ranks of the gray have passed beyond 
the last outpost and forever rest in the bivouac of the dead, above whose 
resting place the white-winged dove of Peace forever folds its tired wings. 

Those gray hairs tell me that you will soon stack arms at the end of 
your last, long march; that you will soon pass through the valley of long 
shadows and cross that deep, dark river to rest forever in the loving 
companionship of those gallant comrades gone before, leaving the im- 
mortal glory of your noble deeds forever locked in the sacred shrine of a 
grateful people's love. 

"We treasure and honor that fast dwindling host, 
And of deeds of their -v^lor yet proudly we boast. 
Tho' wrinkled each brow by the finger of Time, 
A halo of glory around them will shine; 
And memory inurns to life's latest day, 
Thy valor, O Heroes! who once wore the gray. 
Your footsteps may totter, your forms may be bowed, 
And soon may be hid by the grave and the shroud. 
But never, oh never, from earth can you perish. 

While remembrance can last and fond hearts can cherish' 



WILLIAM GOODELL FROST. 

[William Goodell Frost, Ph. D., D. D., President of Berea College, Berea, 
Ky., since 1893; was born July 2, 1854; graduate of Oberlin College, Har- 
vard and Gottingen University, Germany.] 

WHO IS GREATEST IN THE COLLEGE WORLD? 

An address delivered at the inauguration of Henry C. King, D. D., as 
President of Oberlin College, Oberlin, O., May, 1902. 

John Shipherd, the pioneer; Asa Mahan, the prophet; Charles G. 
Finney, the preacher; James H. Fairchild, the philosopher; William G. 
Ballantine, the scholar; John Henry Barrows, the publicist; Henry 
Churchill King, the educator. King is Oberlin's seventh son. 

As a graduate and the son -of a graduate, I am set to speak a word 
for the alumni. We return too seldom, but when we come it is as to 
Jerusalem. We have left our plow in the furrow; a thousand important 
enterprises stand still to-day in order that we may gather at this center of 
inspiration, that we may look once more at those ideals of conduct and 
character which our Alma Mater gave us to be the stars of our firmament, 
and that we may bid God-speed to a new spiritual leader. 

This is the eloquence of Oberlin to us. Here was the burning bush 
where God spoke to us; from these choir seats Allen and Chamberlain 
sang forth the challenge, "Must Jesus bear the cross alone?"; under the 
gallery James Monroe gathered his great Bible class; from this pulpit 
Morgan and Cowles and Brand poured out the everlasting Gospel; and 
in yonder class rooms Hudson and Peck and Thome, Hiram Mead and 
Judson Smith, Cross and Dascomb and Ellis and Mrs. Johnson and 
Shurtleff and Churchill and Ryder opened up to us the inner and the outer 
universe. This is our debt to Oberlin. We came here callow, purposeless 
boys and girls and we were shown that a great struggle was going on 
between right and wrong, between progress and conventionality, and that 
each one of us had a chance to be a soldier. This was our place of enlist- 
ment. 

But Oberlin reminiscences all have a face to the future. We have 
come to repeat our oath of fealty to Oberlin and to express Dur confidence 
in her new president. We pledge him our united and unreserved support. 

And, President King, we realize that we are inducting you into an 
office which is no mere honor. The duties of a governor, a bishop, or a 
commodore do not compare in weight and intricacy with those of a true 
college president, who must be at once a Joseph in finance and a Paul 
in self-forgetful zeal. It is a task to be undertaken only in the spirit of 
consecration, a task which will both gladden your heart and shorten your 
life. 

We sometimes speak of the trying times in the history of an institution 
or a nation. But, my friends, all times are trying when there are heroes 
on the stage. The only times which do not try men's souls are the times 
of negligence, supineness and disgrace. It is because we know King will 



172 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

have an administration full of the storm and stress of real achievement — 
achievement which does not float upon the tide, but stems it — ^that we are 
here to strengthen his hands. 

In the history of all institutions the test comes not in the founding, but 
in the maintaining and reforming. Every head of a religious establishment 
like Oberlin College has two ceaseless wars, one against worldliness and 
one against scholasticism. 

Here is the great tide of worldliness, like the Mississippi, chafing at its 
levees, which surges against every endowed institution. It is Christ's testi- 
mony that those who sit in Moses' seat and are engaged as we are, in 
building the tombs of the martyrs, are subject to special temptations. Let 
us face the fact that most of the great religious bodies, including the one 
to which Oberlin chiefly belongs, have almost ceased to grow. The min- 
ister has settled down with a good reason why his Sunday-school can 
not increase and why his preaching can not lead to conversions. We hardly 
send our ablest sons into the ministry, or our ablest ministers to the hard 
fields where growth should come. These noble bodies stand splendid in 
their history and equipment, going through ineffective motions like the 
army of McClellan. Our eyes are filled with other things and we do not 
see the people who need spiritual guidance — ^the white harvest fields are 
unreaped. It is worldliness, putting the external and secondary in the 
place of the highest, setting great and good things, like commerce and 
music, above religion, abolishing the day of prayer for colleges, that we 
may have one more lesson in chemistry and the history of art. Now, 
Finney's pulpit is the place, and the inauguration of a new president is the 
time to raise the question. Where shall the reaction, the next spiritual 
renaissance, begin? Must it begin as at other times in some obscure sect, 
some persecuted band of students, or can it begin in the hearts of a faculty 
of teachers? 

The first inspiration of our founders came from the Alsatian pastor, 
John Frederick Oberlin. And there has just come another prophet's voice 
from those same far-off Alsatian Mountains. It is Wagner's little book, 
"The Simple Life," full of the ideals which we back numbers of the 
alumni received from our teachers in Oberlin and which are once recognized 
by the elect everywhere as part of a universal and infallible Gospel. Let 
us pass on these high traditions to our pulpits of to-day. "Labor," he 
says, "for people whom the world forgets; make yourselves intelligible to 
the humble; so shall you open again the springs whence these masters 
drew, whose works have defied the ages, because they knew how to clothe 
genius in simplicity." 

And here is the other battle against scholasticism. When a young 
pastor fails in his parish, the seminary, instead of teaching him to give 
a warmer handshake, sometimes invites him to return to the seclusion 
and comfort which have been his undoing, and take a fourth year in Hebrew 
and the History of Doctrine ! 

President King, we desire, above all things, to have our children get 
in Oberlin what we received — ^the impulse to be soldiers. If my boy is 
as coltish and wrong-headed as his father at the same age — if he escapes 
the influence of the ordinary pastor and the church teacher — we shall send 
him to Oberlin, not because you have a gymnasium and a laboratory, 
though we rejoice in these, but because you have teachers of character- 
forming power. When the choice comes between the specialist who is 



WILLIAM GOOD ELL FROST. 173 

interested in his specialty and the educator who is interested in young men 
and women, the alumni cast their votes for the educator. 

So we must separate to-morrow to our several posts of duty, but we 
go strengthened by this meeting. We hail President King as the Lord's 
anointed for this high office. He has spoken words which our hearts 
recognize. From every compass-point we look to this college. We belong 
to Oberlin, and we are glad to feel that Oberlin has a leader. 



JOHN E. GARNER. 

[John E. Garner was born in Winchester, Ky., September 17, 1851. 
Lumber Merchant, Mayor of Winchester, Ky., for twelve years.] 

OH! WAD SOME POWER THE GIFTIE GIE US, TO SEE OURSEL'S 

AS ITHERS SEE US. 

A speech delivered at the banquet of the State Bar Association at Win- 
chester, Ky., June 28, 1906. 

Gentlemen of the State Bar Association : 

The committee has chosen for my text a quotation from Burns — "Oh ! 
wad some power the giftie gie us to see oursel's as ithers see us." Being 
the only one among us who is not one of you, the implication is that 
while you are "ourselves," I am the "others." 

As a layman, representing the laity who have stood alone for truth 
and for truth alone through all the centuries, I shall not vary from their 
lule of conduct even to compliment you gentlemen whose guest I am. 
The Giver of Power has not given to you, but to us, an insight into the 
character of the members of your profession. Nothing more clearly dem- 
onstrates the inspiration of the Bible than that the facts set out thousands 
of years ago remain as true to-day as they were yesterday and will be 
forever. 

After may careful, painstaking and serious readings of the Scriptures, 
I can recall but five times in w'hich the name "lawyer" occurs in the 
book; each time in the catalogue of evils, and they serve as a warning to 
all generations. In one instance a lawyer is recorded as having "refused 
the counsel of God," after which he doubtless assumes the right to act 
as counsel for others. In two instances, each of the paragraphs in which 
the name of lawyer occurs, begins with a malediction, or, more properly, 
an expression of pity. "Woe unto ye, lawyers," and then prefers the 
charge "that ye have laid grievous burdens upon the people." The two 
remaining mentions state on two diflferent occasions that a lawyer "asked 
questions tempting the Saviour." It is not surprising to us, with your 
history before us for 2,000 years and your record behind you for twenty 
centuries, that, while the Saviour was, tempted only three times on earth, 
twice it was by a lawyer and only once by the devil. 

While it is irreverent, and possibly violates propriety, still it seems 
that a citizen ought always to be privileged to defend his town from a 
misleading impression, and I avail myself of this occasion to disclaim the 
responsibility of this town for this bar. 

Very few of its members are of our own growing. Most of them came 
from elsewhere, or, being required to leave elsewhere, came here. Some 
came from the force of circumstances, others were forced by circumstances 
to come. Some thought they saw an opening at the top, which opening 
is still visible and unoccupied. Candor compels me to admit that the 
contagion has in several instances had a local origin, the families of the 



JOHN E- GARNER. 175 

Bushes, Beckners and Jouetts had serious attacks, and there were a few 
sporadic cases. We regret this, as a community should, and at present 
it seems to be under control. 

I was once threatened myself and, when a young man, was supposed 
to exhibit some alarming symptoms. There were those about town who, 
being unfamiliar with many remarkable facts and occurrences until told 
them by me, thought that I exhibited evidences of a fitness for the practice 
of law by reason of my supposed careless observance of one of the 
commandments. The prayers of the righteous prevailed, and I escaped 
being a lawyer by a very narrow margin ; missed it about as far as Dennis 
Houghlihan missed getting a treat. The story is told and localized that 
two Irishmen were standing on the street when one said to the other: 
"Dinnis, Mike Cudahy, who keeps the saloon over the street, is the meanest, 
stingiest Irishman that ever came across the pond." "Well, I donno," 
says Dennis, "he come pretty nigh treating me one morning." And the 
other man says : "Come pretty nigh treating you ?" "Yes," says Dennis, 
"I went in there one morning, he went round and took down a bottle 
of whisky and wiped the dust oflf'n it, then he took down a bottle of gin 
and wiped the dust oflf'n that. Says he, 'Dennis, what are we going ta 
have this morning?' an, just as I was about to say gin, he said, 'rain or 
snow ?' " 

Many of the older among you doubtless knew, and the younger among 
you have heard, the reputation of this bar when such men as Simpson, 
Huston and Hanson assisted in adjusting the equities among men in this 
town. It was to this class of men that Roger Hanson referred when asked 
how it happened that all of Winchester's great lawyers moved to Lexington. 
Hanson said it wasn't true; that they were misled into that opinion from 
the fact that "a d — d small lawyer in Winchester is a great big lawyer in 
Lexington." I want to deal fairly by our local bar, and am compelled 
to say that the old bar was not more generally known throughout the 
State than the present one. This is evidenced by the fact that there have 
been a great many meetings of this association, at various places, and they 
have discussed numberless questions, and so well, generally and thoroughly 
was this bar known that not a single member of it has been permitted 
to talk about anything, anywhere, at any time. 

The question is often asked : "Why so many lawyers?" The general 
impression is that it arises from the universal desire in human nature to 
get some one between them and hard work. Then lawyers presume and 
others assume that the slightest acquaintance with the revised statutes fits 
a man for any kind of undertaking, responsibility or office, whether it be 
commanding armies, governing colonies, constructing canals, representing 
governments at foreign courts or administering the aflFairs of government 
at home. Then, too, every lawyer hopes at some time to become a judge^ 
and I have heard it said that some lawyers hope that at some time some 
judges will become lawyers. The title of judge, once acquired, is seldom 
voluntarily abandoned. I only recall one instance in which it was dis- 
claimed. There was an old attorney here named O'Riley, with an "O" in 
front of his name as big as a circus ring, who had inherited the wit and hu- 
mor and waspishness of one hundred generations of O'Rileys. At some time 
in the past, at the quadrennial distribution of prizes at Frankfort, he had 
drawn a colonel's commission from the Governor's grab-bag. He was very 
proud of his title and resented anybody's forgetting it. Many years after- 
ward, one of the judges of the common pleas court resigned his office, 



176 KENTUCKT ELOQUENCE, 

and the Governor appointed O'Riley to fill the vacancy until the next 
election, in which interim no court was to be held. After he had received 
his commission, he regarded every man as his natural enemy who failed 
to forget that he was ever colonel or to remember that he was then judge. 
I was talking to him one day on the street when an ex-police judge, whQ 
had been away for some years, addressed him as colonel. He said : "Not 
'colonel,' just plain 'Mr. O'Riley." The ex-judge apologized and said: 
"I beg a thousand pardons, I ought to have said 'judge.' " O'Riley said: 
"Don't mention it, there have been so many trifling, incompetent men 
elected police judge, and things like that, that I don't regard the title." 

To a layman it looks as if you lawyers had purposely so contemplated 
the Constitution and its amendments, legislation and its appeals, decisions 
and their reversals, that those who are in part blamable for all three were 
most confused of any. You draw contracts and wills so that they mean 
a dozen different things to a dozen different lawyers and nothing whatever 
to the jury. I heard of a young attorney who opened an office in a 
country town and waited a long time for his first client. Finally a farmer 
came in and asked him to draw a contract between him and a negro. The 
attorney told the farmer that if he would come back just before he left 
town, he would try to get time to draw the contract during the day. He 
drew the contract, giving him more than the worth of his money in the 
preamble, and when the farmer came he gave it to him, and, after he 
passed "Witnesseth," he began reading aloud, "That in consideration of 
services being rendered by the party of the second part to the party of the 
first part, the party of the first part agrees to pay to the party of the second 
part, provided the party of the second part renders such services to the 
party of the first part agreed to by the party of the second part — " At 
this juncture, hejthrew the contract down, walked out of the office and 
said : "I'll be d — d if you haven't hired me to the 'nigger.' " 

The Psalmist has said: "I said in mine haste all men are liars;" and, 
while he did not particularize your profession, he made no exception in 
your case. Notwithstanding he lived many years afterward, had an 
abundant leisure, was in constant communication with the higher court, 
there is no record to show that he ever made a motion to amend or to 
strike out that paragraph. Yet I knew one member of your profession 
who was an extreme stickler for truth (so he said), but admitted that it 
was an inherited quality. He claimed that veracity was in the blood and 
that, as far backward or forward as it could be traced, not one of them 
Avould tell an untruth, nor permit his word to be questioned. He said he 
went to see about a twentieth cousin of his, and heredity was so strong 
that his forgetting himself for a moment caused him to take on a load 
of regret that he would not be able to shake off this side the grave. He 
said: "Cousin Jim, how are you?" and Jim said: "I am a very sick 
man; if I were to turn over on my right side, I'd die in a minute." He 
said to him: "This can't be true; your respiration is easy, your tempera- 
ture is normal and your pulse strong; you can't be a very sick man." 
Cousin Jim said: "I will show you," and turned over on his right side 
and died. This is a true story, for he told me so himself. But it is also 
true that where truth is so thoroughly engrafted in the blood very few 
of the members of the family engage in the practice of law. 

The practice of law is very inviting, even when based upon the low 
plane of mere money making. Sometimes a lawyer gets a contingent fee 
in a large suit. Huston once was asked: "What is a contingent fee?" 



JOHlf E. GARNER. 177 

He said: "It is this: If I take your case for a contingent fee, regardless 
of how much trouble it is to me, if I lose the case I don't get a cent, and, 
if I win, you don't." 

There is no limit to the number of cases which may arise. A lawyer 
brings, a suit for which he charges a fee 'of $5,000. The client employs 
another lawyer to resist this claim, and the second one charges $6,000. 
He, of course, employs a third, and this mode of procedure continues until 
the sheriff sells his few remaining effects to pay the circuit clerk for 
recording the orders and steps by which he was separated from his property. 

There are but two propositions about which lawyers are as a unit; 
they favor unanimously the repeal of the Ananias statute, and agree upon 
the reasonableness of any fee. As a mathematical curiosity, I should like 
to see an array of figures which would represent an unreasonable fee for 
a lawyer's services against a great estate, unless the claim was resisted. 
If resisted, the best groomed lawyers, of course, get the first chance, but, 
after a while, the property is so reduced, that it is pardonable for any 
lawyer to get a finger in the pie. Then the fun begins — 

"The big fleas have little fleas on their backs to bite them 
And little fleas have lesser fleas, ad infinitum." 



11 



GEORGE G. GILBERT. 

[George G. Gilbert, Lawyer, Member of Congress, Shelbyville, Ky., was 
born in Spencer County, Kentucky, December 24, 1849. Taught school 
several years. County (Spencer) Attorney, State Senator; Member of Con- 
gress.] 

ANSWERS TO CRITICISMS ON KENTUCKY. 

A speech delivered in the United States House of Representatives, April 
23, 1902, in answer to the assaults made on the politics and feuds of 
Kentucky. 

Mr. Chairman: 

Some days ago, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Gillett) took 
occasion to criticise the remarks that had been made a few days previously 
by my colleague from Kentucky (Mr. Wheeler), and in course of these 
remarks that gentleman (Mr. Gillett) used this language : 

"But there are two classes which still look to birth and ancestry. One 
class is the self-styled aristocratic circle in our great cities who have shown 
a strong tendency to pay huge prices for empty titles even when they had 
to be taken with the incumbrance of a useless and disreputable husband. 

"The other class exists almost exclusively in the part of the country 
dominated hopelessly by the Democratic party, where they consider that 
no culture, no refinement, or ability, or noble service can atone for a taint 
of color in the blood." 

On the following day, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Bromwell) 
found an opportunity to read some poetry at the expense of Kentucky, 
and then proceeded to comment thus : 

"So much for Colonel Mulligan, and it is particularly the last line of 
this poem which reminded me that the gentleman from Kentucky had 
made a speech which illustrated it most beautifully — 'Politics are the 
damnedest in Kentucky.' ... Mr. Chairman, we have no Indians nor 
savages in Ohio. The general impression is that while there may not be 
many Indians in Kentucky, there are still some specimens of savages 
there." 

Then last and least, a certain General Funston is reported in the 
Washington Post of March 4th as having this to say : 

"There is no more war in the Philippines than there is in Kentucky. 
Assassins lurk in the cane and shoot down men who are at their mercy, but 
there are no soldiers in the field to battle with the United States troops. 
Even respectable guerilla warfare has ceased." 

Now, I desire to comment a little upon these criticisms of my State, 
and to remind the members of this House and the country of Kentucky's 
people, her politics, her history and her achievements. 

Now, first let us read over again the objectionable feature of the 
remarks of the gentleman from Massachusetts: "The other class (of aris- 
tocrats) exists almost exclusively in the part of the country dominated 
hopelessly by the Democratic party, where they consider that no culture, 



GEORGE G' GILBERT. 179 

no refinement, or ability, or noble service can atone for a taint of color 
in the blood." It is perfectly true that in Kentucky and in the South 
generally no culture or ability can atone for a taint of color in the blood. 
We do not believe in social equality with the negroes in the South, and 
we have very little respect for the white man in the North or South 
who does believe in social equality between the two races. We believe 
that the greatest calamity that could befall the white population of this 
country would be for them to become degenerates by a general admixture 
of negro blood. Who can think of miscegenation without a shudder of 
horror? The Jews have preserved the purity of their blood through the 
ages more successfully than any other race, and they are as a result of 
this the only race who have survived from the ancient world. For cen- 
turies it was a felony for a Jew to land upon the soil of England. 

"Pride and humiliation, hand in hand. 

Walked with them through the world where'er they wentj 
Trampled and beaten were they as the sand. 
And yet unshaken as the continent." 

But in a few years after they ceased to be persecuted, they came rapidly 
to the front, and the destinies of the British Empire are in the hands of 
three Jews — Judah P. Benjamin was her lawyer, Rothschild was her 
banker, and Disraeli was her prime minister. Upon the other hand, think 
how other nations have degenerated and disappeared. 

Think of the Roman senator, and then look out upon the street and 
see the modern Italian organ grinder, with his monkey, the descendant 
of the ancient Roman. Reflect for a moment what Portugal was in the 
days of Vasco da Gama and of Camoens, when her victorious banner 
floated in the breeze in every climje and the sails of her merchantmen 
whitened every sea. But that race soon began an almost indiscriminate 
marriage with negroes and Indians, and Portugal has not only ceased to 
be a nation of importance, but her half-breed and mongrel people have 
been the curse of all the South American and other countries she has 
attempted to colonize. Let us further reflect that the richer and more 
luxurious the white population becomes, the more the ladies take to raising 
poodle dogs instead of children. 

For example, we have an ominous fact shown in the last census that 
in Massachusetts, after a lapse of more than three hundred years of civiliza- 
tion, more than half of the population of that State is foreign bom. Every- 
body knows that, as a rule, the poor and hard-working people raise pro- 
portionately the most children in every country. So, in Kentucky, we 
can not shut our eyes to the importance of watching and curbing every 
tendency to social equality between the white and colored races. "We 
believe that no culture, no education, no refinement, no public service can 
atone for a taint of color in the blood." Our opinion is that any white 
man who encourages an intermingling of the races is a public enemy and 
that every step in that direction is a crime. It is not a mere sentiment. 
This universal race prejudice is the voice of Nature and the voice of God 
crying out for the preservation and purity of the race, and he is a blas- 
phemer against the laws of the Almighty who, with hypocritical cant, 
would undertake to tear down and destroy these sentiments. 

I want to remind the gentleman from Massachusetts that while 
Governor Shelby, of Kentucky, with sword in one hand and hat in the 



180 KEHTVCKY ELOQUENCE. 

other, was charging and routing the British at Kings Mountain, Massa- 
chusetts, farmers were driving cattle across the border to feed the British 
soldiers in Canada, and Massachusetts statesmen were holding the Hartford 
convention and were planning and scheming to dissolve the Union. 

The gentleman from the Pigtown district of Ohio indorsed the senti- 
ment that "politics are the damnedest in Kentucky," and said that we 
still had some specimens of savages there. 

There are no savages in Ohio. But they used to swarm over that 
State and over all the Northwest Territory, and but for the heroism of 
Kentucky pioneers the gentleman's State of Ohio would still perhaps be 
a part of Canada and therefore a part of the British possessions in North 
America. 

Has he forgotten those brave Kentuckians who, with old rifles and 
powder-horns, with buckskin breeches and coonskin caps, followed the 
leadership of George Rogers Clark, who waded the swamps of that 
Northwest Territory up to their armpits for ten days in a bleak winter 
and drove the Indians from Kaskaskia and Vincennes and moved the 
northern line of our possessions from the Ohio river up to the lakes? 
By the way, now that you Republicans are about to send some special 
envoys to the Court of St. James to assist in the coronation of Edward 
VII., it is a good time to remind the people, and especially the younger 
generation, that when our country was young and feeble, it was this same 
old England which was not satisfied with trying to crush us with ordinary 
war, but she armed the savage Indians, filled them with whisky, and, while 
the young and able-bodied of the men were on the Atlantic seaboard 
fighting her redcoats, it was the same England that turned these savagv:s 
loose to murder and scalp the women and children that were left unpro- 
tected upon our Western frontier. 

And General Funston tells us that "there is no more war in the 
Philippines than there is in Kentucky." 

What a commentary that is upon the administration to keep 60,000 
soldiers at an expense of more than a hundred millions of dollars a year 
in the Philippine Islands when there is no war there! Certainly there is 
no war in the State of Kentucky, and Kentucky needs no defense from 
such a wanton slander as this to those who know her history. 

Did you know that Kentucky was the first State in the Union to estab- 
lish a general system of common schools under which all of the property 
of all the people was taxed for the education of all the children ? Kentucky 
was the first State in the Union to clamor for the free navigation of the 
Mississippi river and for the purchase of the Louisiana territory. 

Kentucky was the first State in the Union to demand reparation and 
apology for impressing American sailors, and when these were denied she 
was the first State to agitate the necessity for the second war with England, 
and when the war came her soldiers were the first to take their flatboats 
and float down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, and but 
for the soldiers of Kentucky and Tennessee General Jackson's great victory 
at New Orleans would never have been achieved. Kentucky was the 
first State in the Union to agitate the gradual emancipation of the slaves 
and to urge compensation to the owners instead of war. For more than 
a generation the great Commoner, Henry Clay, stood upon the floor of 
this Capitol and ,with one hand upon the shoulder of the Northern aboli- 
tionist and with the other hand upon the shoulder of the Southern slave- 
holder, he, with unequaled eloquence, begged for peace. 



GEORGE G- GILBERT. 181 

Kentucky furnished more soldiers in the Tex^s revolution than any 
State in the Union, and was the only State that had as many as a regiment 
of soldiers at the great battle of San Jacinto. 

Kentucky furnished more soldiers in the war with Mexico than any 
other State in the Union, and it was a gallant young Kentuckian who scaled 
the walls of Chapultepec and planted the Stars and Stripes above the 
palace of the Montezumas. The first steamboat ever seen in the world 
was invented and constructed by John Fitch, who was a Kentuckian, and 
who now lies buried at Bardstown. 

The greatest American ornithologist was James Audubon, a Kentuckian, 
whose studies and illustrations of birds are the admiration of every civilized 
country. 

The finest piece of statuary ever seen in America is the "Triumph of 
Chastity," carved by Joel T. Hart, a Kentucky sculptor. 

The finest portrait in the Corcoran Art Gallery is a painting of Henry 
Clay, by Jouett, a Kentucky painter. It was of this picture that Charles 
Sumner, himself an art critic, said: "This must be the work of Rem- 
brandt, for no American artist has attained such excellence." 

The greatest lawyer who has sat upon the bench of the supreme court 
since the death of John Marshall was Samuel F. Miller, who was first a 
Kentucky doctor and then a Kentucky lawyer before he moved to Iowa. 

The learned and classical opinions of Chief Justice Robertson, of 
Kentucky, have been read with admiration and followed as precedents in 
all the great courts, from Washington to Westminster Hall. 

The first successful operation of ovariotomy was performed by Dr. 
Ephraim McDowell, a Kentucky doctor, and the first successful hip-joint 
amputation in surgery was performed by Dr. Brashear, of Kentucky. An 
account of these achievements in surgery was read with admiration and 
followed as precedents in the great medical schools of Paris, Edinburgh 
and Beriin. 

The greatest and most respectable religious denomination that ever 
originated on the Western hemisphere was founded and promulgated by a 
Kentucky preacher, Alexander Campbell. The most learned and eloquent 
preacher the Presbyterian church has produced in a hundred years was 
Robert J. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. The most gifted pulpit orator the 
Methodist church has seen since the days of John Wesley, and the man 
who Henry said was the greatest orator he had ever heard, was Bishop 
Bascom, of Kentucky. The most learned Hebrew scholar and greatest 
theologian the Baptist church can boast of in America was the Rev. John 
A. Broadus, of Kentucky. The great historian of the Roman Catholic 
church, the man who wrote the splendid reply to Daubigny's history of 
the Protestant reformation, was Archbishop Martin J. Spaulding, of 
Kentucky. 

We have fewer millionaires and fewer tramps and paupers than any 
State in the Union; property is more equally distributed; every one who 
tries lives in peace and comfort, and there is no newly-rich class with 
ignorant impudence undertaking to lord it over the rest. We are all poor 
and proud, and the poorer the prouder. All of us white folks are in thig 
sense aristocratic alike. 

Kentucky was settled by men and women x)f dauntless spirit and heroic 
mold. 

When Abram was called from Ur of the Chaldees to found a new 



182 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

nation in the Land of Promise, he took with him his servants and his cattle 
and he found the land flowing with milk and honey. 

When Romulus and Remus laid the foundation of the Imperial City, 
the fight of birds marked out the division lines, trust in the golden fleece 
assured them of wealth, and the wild wolf had been domesticated to furnish 
them with milk. But our ancestors left home and civilization far behind 
them and over the mountains. They lighted their fires in a trackless 
wilderness, while there lurked concealed upon every side the deadliest and 
most relentless of savage foes. Only at long intervals had they any bread 
at all, and this was of com cakes baked in ashes. Their meat consisted 
of wild game brought down by the unerring aim of the rifle. Their houses 
consisted of the rudest log huts, without glass in the windows, without 
carpets upon the floor and without parlor or piano. Like the rebuilders 
of the temple, they toiled through the day with the implements of their 
labor in one hand and their weapons of defense in the other. At nightfall, 
these pioneers locked themselves within their cabins against prowling 
wolves and roving savages that then really existed in Kentucky. They 
had no books or newspapers to while away the long hours of the evening, 
and when sleep came at last to their tired and careworn bodies, they flung 
themselves down on the skins of wild animals, while their children were 
hushed to sleep by the weird lullabies furnished by the hooting of the owl 
and the scream of the panther. 

And yet they were a brave, chivalrous splendid people. They were 
the knight-errants of the wilderness. The lady love of the Kentucky 
pioneer was the wife of his bosom. His children were the hostages that 
pledged him to the love of home and country. 

If he was a terror to the wild animals and the wild Indians, he was 
a still greater terror to the desppiler of home or honor; and — 

"What, though on humble fare they dined, 
Wore hodden-gray, and a' that; 
Give fools their silk and knaves their wine — 
A man's a man for a' that." 



C C GRASSHAM. 

[C. C. Grassham, Paducah, Ky., was born in Salem, Livingston County, 
Kentucky, March 20, 1871; educated in Salem, Ky., Madisonville, Ky., and 
Lebanon, Ohio; taught school from the age of fifteen to twenty; read law 
with Captain J. W. Bush and Hon. John K. Hendrick; practiced in Living- 
ston and adjoining counties; Election Commissioner Livingston County, four 
terms; Assistant Elector, 1900; Elector First Congressional District (Demo- 
crat), 1904; on stafE of Governor W. C. P. Beckham with rank of Colonel.] 

PRESENTING GOVERNOR BECKHAM. 

An address delivered at a Democratic meeting at Smithland, Ky., on 
Friday, October 23, 1903. 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Your presence on this occasion bears witness to your interest in the 
welfare of Kentucky and her people. For this you are to be commended. 
The final analysis of the sovereignty of a free people is the virtue and 
independence of a worthy citizenship. No freeman, obedient to the laws 
and loyal to the Constitution, can rightfully withhold his vote or influence 
in the shaping of public affairs or the selection of public servants. He 
who does, substracts from the common welfare and public good and nega- 
tives his claim to the priceless inheritance of American freedom. 

Upon a proper choice and an intelligent expression of that choice, 
both as to men and measures, depend your property rights and the personal 
rights of yourselves and your families. Loving home as dearly as did your 
forefathers, you have discarded the j)ioneers' weapons of defense for the pro- 
tection vouchsafed by law. The law is no better than its makers, and 
can rise no higher than its source ; hence it behooves every voter, whatso- 
ever may be his party obligations or affiliations, to choose none but public 
servants of unquestioned integrity, and to stand for an enlightened and 
incorruptible citizenship, a free ballot and a fair count. For from among 
the people must come their servants, and to the people will they render 
only such accounting as is demanded. The people, in their sovereign 
capacity, each citizen an integral part of the irresistible whole, working in 
harmony and for the common welfare, can arrest the greed and power of 
the greatest monopolies and aggregations of wealth that have yet ven- 
tured beyond the privileges allowed to capital under the law. If the law 
is adequate to arrest the encroachments of unlawful combinations, then 
demand its enforcement by your public servants; if inadequate, then 
demand the enactment of those laws necessary to prevent the destruction 
of the citizen's identity and to insure to him the full enjoyment of the in? 
alienable rights that must remain inviolate in every country that floats the 
flag of freedom. 

Indifference and ignorance are the twin destroyers of government — as 
one leads to slothfulness, so does the other to viciousness, thus impairing, 
if not destroying, its potency. Then it is that wealth and luxury, headed 
by the Captain Kidds of Industry, seize upon its emasculated remains and 
parcel it with the same fiendish gleefulness that prompted Nero to make 



184 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

merry at the burning of Rome. This result finds in history its precedent 
and parallel, for along the highway of human effort, piled in moldering 
heaps, may be found the ruins of empires, as dazzling in splendor and 
magnificence as a Caesar could conceive, their fall traceable alike to one 
or the other destroyer. From this we may take a lesson of vigilance. 
Lycurgus, the Spartan law-giver, wisely and truly said that no man should 
live for himself alone, but for his country. 

A standing army and a matchless navy guard our shores and possessions 
in distant lands. The rulers of Orient and Occident vie in paying homage 
to our Union of States. Yet more powerful than army and navy in 
preserving free govemment, and more to be revered than kingly worship, 
is the exercise of the elective franchise by the plain people at the polls. 
This is a country of plain people, with no patricians or feudal lords 

"To mock their useful toil, 

Their homely joys or destiny obscure." 

Jefferson, author of our chart of freedom, by stroke of pen, destroyed 
and prohibited all titles of nobility in this American republic and, with his 
coadjutors, made it for Americans as it was for Romans when Rome was 
at her zenith, and 'twas said that to be a Roman was greater than to be 
a king. To preserve this heritage, we must merit it, individually and 
collectively. 

These admonitions are ^ven more by way of emphasis than caution. 
Kentuckians to the manor bom, our love for the Union is not limited to 
the material, for we love alike its past and its present and prize as 5 
glorious heritage its history and traditions. Kentucky has occupied no 
obscure place either in the formation or preservation of our republic. In 
peace and in war she has furnished her full quota of illustrious leaders. 
Whether in the council halls of the nation ; in the high court of last resort ; 
at the forum; upon the hustings; leading a charge upon the field of carnage; 
at the altar expounding the word of the Great I Am, or wherever they 
have striven, the sons of Kentucky have taken no second place. No State 
could boast such offspring were it not for the fact that its citizenship had 
been cast in the mold of the homely yirtues of square living and square 
dealing. What Kentucky has done, Kentucky again can do. Proud as we 
are of her grand achievements, treasuring as the apple of our eye the deeds 
and daring of her matchless sons, we must not forget, aye, we must keep 
in the tower of memory, the truth that the noble dead but blazed the way 
to greater things. Still farther on, still higher up the steeps of dare and 
do, are victories yet to be won, transcending all the rest. Not forgetful of 
the past, steeped as it is in trials and abounding as it does in triumphs, I 
would remind you that the high places once held by these kingly men, 
will find in the Kentuckians of this generation fit and worthy successors. 

We are honored on this occasion by the presence of the Governor of 
Kentucky, bearing the standard of his party in the battle of ballots to be 
had November 3d. In the past our little village, though remotely situate 
from the great centers of commerce and learning, and possessing no 
peculiar merit as a vantage ground in politics, was honored by the presence 
of such distinguished gentlemen as John Bell, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses 
S. Grant, Judah P. Benjamin, Henry Clay, Sargent S. Prentice and 
William J. Bryan, but never before has it been the pleasure of our people 
to be honored by a visit of the State's chief executive. 



C. C. GRAS8HAM. 185 

An introduction of him to this magnificent assembly of ladies and 
gentlemen is unnecessary, yet I feel that I should recall to your 
memory the rapid rise of this worthy son of a noble sire. In quick succes- 
sion a partial and devoted democracy has placed upon his youthful brow 
unfading laurels that have been coveted by thousands in the past and that 
will be sought by thousands in the future. First, a member of Kentucky's 
General Assembly; preferred to the Speakership of the House; elected 
Lieutenant Governor; succeeded to the governorship; elected to fill an 
unexpired term, and now the nominee of his party to succeed himself as 
Governor is, in brief the story of his public career. A gentleman by nature 
and cultivation, gifted with the power of persuasive speech, able, sincere 
and enthusiastic in his labors for the people and their rights, he is, indeed, 
a man of parts who has rendered and will render to the State a just 
accounting of a faithful service. 

I present to you Governor Beckham. 



JAMES GUTHRIE. 

[James Guthrie, United States Senator, was born in Nelson County, 
Kentucky, December 5, 1792; died in Louisville, Ky., March 13, 1869; edu- 
cated at Bardstown, Ky., and studied law under John Rowan; began the 
practice of law in Louisville in 1820; elected to the lower house of the Ken- 
tucky Legislature in 1827, and was a member of the upper house from 1831 
till 1840; President of the Kentucky Constitutional Convention of 1849; 
Secretary of the United States Treasury under President Pierce from 1853 
till 1857; elected United States Senator in 1865; resigned in 1868 on account 
of declining health; President of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad from 
1860 till 1868. 

THE RESTRICTION OF REPRESENTATION OF CITIES, AND A 
DEFENSE OF THE LOUISVILLE LEGION. 

Speech delivered in the Kentucky Convention, November 12, 1849, on 
the proposition to restrict the representation of cities in the Legislature, 
and incidentally defending the Louisville Legion in an attack made upon it 
by Ben Hardin in his speech favoring the restriction of representation of 
cities. 

I am exceedingly sorry that the elder gentleman (Mr. Hardin) from 
Nelson has seen fit to cast a base and infamous stigma upon the gallantry 
of the soldiers of Louisville and Jeflferson county. He says he sees on 
that hill in the cemetery (Frankfort) no name of any citizen of Louisville. 
If he had waited till the monument which is to be erected there was com- 
pleted, he would have seen the name of the gallant Clay, who fell fighting 
in the foremost ranks; and he would have learned that he was a citizen of 
Louisville — not bom there, it is true — ^but a citizen by adoption and by 
choice, as many other of her citizens are, and he would have forborne the 
stigma on the city of Louisville, a stigma insinuated, and for that reason 
more damnable than if it was charged direct. 

I was not bom in Louisville, sir, but it is the city of my adoption, and 
I can tell the gentleman that the spirit of freedom burns as pure and as 
independently in the bosoms of the citizens of Louisville as it does in the 
bosoms of the citizens of any portion of Kentucky. It is true, sir, the 
Louisville Legion shed no blood at the battle of Monterey, and it is true 
that the battle continued for two days. But where was the Louisville 
Legion? They were placed by the order Df General Taylor to guard the 
battery that shielded those that made the charge, and for twelve hours 
they endured the fire of the enemy without action unflinchingly. Why 
they were placed there is in the breast of that man, but upon the battery 
and its safety depended the safety of the army, and he confided it to those 
whom he believed sufficient to defend it. 

Surely, in carrying 'out an act of political importance, it is not necessary 
to slander the citizens who, with bravery and gallantry, rushed en mass« 
to the rescue of the country. The proposition is a proposition to demolish 
our fair portion of political rights in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. 
It is a proposition now directed solely and exclusively against the city 
of Louisville, that she shall not have an equal voice in making the laws that 
are to govern a free people. It fs an act of political injustice and, though the 



J AMES GUTHRIE , 187 

gentleman may have had to sleep upon it, in order to bring himself up to it, 
it shows that that sleep has enabled him to bring himself to perpetrate this 
act of political injustice which he had some grudging about in the first 
instance. 

The principle upon which our Government is established is universal 
suffrage. We proclaimed it in the old Constitution, and we are about to 
proclaim it in the new. But it will have to be struck out if this act of 
political injustice is perpetrated, because it will be false, utterly, totally, 
unconditionally, irremediably false, to the people of Kentucky and to the 
world. If a free people are equal and entitled to equal rights, that is ^ 
principle, and no man who acknowledges the principle, if he acts consis- 
tently, but must carry it out in all its consequences, or he denies the prin- 
ciple, and says that we are not entitled to equal political rights. Well, if 
we are not entitled to them, and you deny that principle, where is it to 
end ? Where is the limit to the inroads you will make upon the political 
rights of a portion 'of your citizens? It will be in the will of a majority, 
based on no principle but that of expediency. And that majority will have 
a will not anchored by principle, but expediency, and it will lead to the 
very same degree of despotism that rules the autocrat of Russia, that 
tramples upon the rights and liberties of the continent of Europe, and has 
hitherto had no footing on the shores of America, or, if a footing, the march 
and extension of free principles have been, since the days of the Revolution, 
constantly in advance. 

What is the reason endorsed by the gentleman from Madison for 
obliterating these principles? He says that the slave population will not 
be safe to their masters if this principle is carried Dut. Three-fourths of 
the votes that were cast for the delegation on this floor from the city of 
Louisville were cast by men who held no slaves — ^by men who did not 
worship at the shrine — and they cast their votes "on principle. They be- 
lieved that our fathers, when they framed this Constitution, laid its founda- 
tion in justice, and they determined that they would stand upon the 
platform that private property was not to be taken without just compensa- 
tion — ^that it was the privilege of a free people to lay it on that foundation 
and keep it on that foundation. And as the law had authorized this 
property, and individuals had invested in it, if it was the public impulse 
that this species of property should be excluded, they thought they should 
compensate those who had acquired it ; and, soberly appealing to that prin- 
ciple -of innate right, based on the foundation of the Constitution, we 
appealed to men to stand by the rights to property as they would stand by 
the rights to liberty, equality and equal rights, and we did not appeal in 
vain. 

We stand Here representing that people and that great principle, and 
it is thrown in our teeth that it is necessary to violate tTiat principle in 
order to secure our negroes. I would want no other reason and argument 
to give me double power and double force in agitating upon the subject of 
emancipation than to tell a free people, free white men, that their rights 
have been violated and trampled in the dust, and their equal political 
privileges in this Government have been silenced in the legislative halls 
of the country in order to save that property. How do the gentlemen 
expect to send back the delegates from' the city of Louisville to their con- 
stituents? What answer do they expect them to make in relation to this 
question ? They will say, You told us the foundations of this Government 
were laid in justice, and that you would lay the foundations of the one 



188 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

you are framing on the same, and would give equal laws and equal 
rights to all. We should say the balance of the State has deprived us of 
the voice of freedom, has trampled our rights in the dust. And for what 
avowed reason? Because they feared the day would come when eman- 
cipation would have a head in the city of Louisville and upon the bordering 
counties. Thank God, emancipation has not drenched the fields of Louis- 
ville, or the bordering counties, with blood. The principles involved in 
this, and the reasons for carrying it out, are fraught with more evil to this 
institution than any other act that this convention could possibly do. I 
tell these gentlemen who are in favor of the institution of slavery that, 
if it can abide at all, it can only abide on the sentiments of justice and 
right to the holders of slaves. Slave-holders are not a majority in Ken- 
tucky. They never will be, and whenever you destroy that principle of 
right which deprives a man of the power of defending private property, 
when you trample on the political rights of man in order to shield it, you 
have unloosed a force and power which will overturn this principle. If 
we are to be sacrificed, if our political principles are to be crushed, and our 
voice is no more to be heard in the country, for God's sake let it be for 
some other reason, and do not sanctify and make holy that abominable 
reason that will work against you most fearfully and awfully. There is 
jealousy against the cities. Has Kentucky ever had any reason — any just 
reason — ^to be jealous of any of the cities in the State, large or small?. 
And is she likely to ever have? Are they less spirited, less desirous of 
enlightening the public mind and sustaining free institutions? The city 
of Louisville established the first public schools where all went and re- 
ceived an education without charge, except from the public purse. Louis^ 
ville now lays a tax on the property of her citizens of twelve and a half 
cents per annum to sustain the public schools in order to enlighten the 
rising generation and make them acquainted with their rights. She is in 
advance — she took the first step and is now in advance — of the balance 
of the State in reference to education. 

Upon the subject of internal improvements, which some men delight 
to denounce, but which have in their effect more than doubled, or nearly 
doubled, the value of the whole real estate in the country, where did 
Louisville stand ? She was in favor of them, and in her voice and her aid 
and assistance enabled them to be carried on. And it is obvious to any one 
acquainted, 'or who would look at the records of the legislation of that 
time, if she had withdrawn her assistance, there would have been no turn- 
pikes through the State and no slack water navigation, and she is now 
furnishing an example of enterprise to the balance of cities in the railroad 
she is building from the city of Louisville to this capital, and thence to 
the city 'of Lexington, and thence through the northern portion of the 
State to join the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and thus open the markets 
of the East. This is a thing that may and will be accomplished if we are 
wise and it is the enterprise of Louisville that points to this work. 

Will the citizens of Louisville derive no advantage from this enterprise ? 
What do they fear? Why, say they, she gets all our produce. Yes, all 
that you choose to bring, and she pays for it. I hope the trade of Louisville 
is mutually advantageous to both city and country; and it is obvious to 
every one who has remarked it that, within the borders of the city, there 
is a home market, beneficial to the citizens of Kentucky. Six thousand 
hogsheads of tobacco inspected and sold at ,a home market, where the 
planter can receive his money, is an evidence that Louisville is growing 



JAMES GUTHRIE. 189 

and producing a market beneficial to the State. Is it that market that 
causes gentlemen to look with suspicion on her? 'It is a market where 
you get supplies. It is more, .it is a market for the enterprise of the 
State. All that are in Louisville were not born there. All that have 
trusted and confided in that city were not born there. The merchant, the 
man of genius and enterprise, goes there as to a market for his genius and 
talents which the country does not afford. 

She has her medical hall and four hundred students, and I hope and 
trust she yields to those who come there an equivalent, and in the intelli- 
gence that she imparts she does- no harm to the cause of liberty and equal 
rights. She educates young men in other departments, and to them the 
same remark is equally true. What is there that Louisville does to cause 
jealousy of different portions of the State ? When danger calls, her citizens 
tly to the rescue as soon as those of any other portion of the State. I do 
not say more quickly, for I do not believe it, but 'on a proper occasion, and 
in a proper field, I believe they will meet the contingencies of battle as 
boldly as any other citizens, and I claim no more for them. 

Mr. Chairman, I know the balance of the counties of this State have 
it within their power to put such provisions in this Constitution as they 
may choose, and they may deny to Louisville, or any other city in the 
Commonwealth, any representation at all — any voice in it. They have 
got the power. Is it expedient they should exercise it.? They may exer- 
cise it by violating the principles of equal rights. The gentlemen do not 
propose, I understand, to go the whole, but half way only. They will 
take from the present generation nothing they are entitled to, but they will 
disfranchise the generation to come, or lessen one-half, or three-fourths, 
or four-fifths of the political power in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. 
Is there an3^hing to be more safe? Are the political rights of the people 
to be more safe? It is a violation of principle that shows a man is not 
at heart willing to allow the balance of the community that freedom which 
he enjoys himself. If you do these things in the small, let the temptation 
be equal to it and you will do it in the great. I have no more confidence 
in the men that have made up their minds to invade the rights of their 
fellow citizens and stifle the voice of the people of Kentucky than I have 
in the voice of the autocrat of Russia who thinks and acts for the whole. 
If you do it in one thing, let the temptation be great enough and you 
will do it in another. I know gentlemen have been contemplating 
this project. One gentleman places it upon the necessity of securing their 
negroes. Another wants to supply that population which they have driven 
to other States, in the extension of their farms, and give to them votes 
for the men they have lost and which thpy have replaced with bullocks. 
I understand it, sir. And it would be just as sensible, and no greater out- 
rage, in my view of the subject, if they should say their bullocks should 
be represented in the Legislature of Kentuck}^ to make up for the voices 
■of the freemen congregated in the cities, if there were any way of casting 
the votes. I beg, gentlemen, to consider this principle. I know the 
balance of the State have the power; I know many men claiming to be 
Democrats, and many men claiming to be Whisfs, who are contemplating 
this proceeding, and who are swom upon the principle 'of equal rights and 
equal justice to all, and yet, because they think they can do this act with 
impunity, they are preparing themselves to carry their purpose into effect. 
I know it ; I have seen it. 

I can sign no Constitution that denies to my constituents those equal 



190 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

political rights that other freemen have. I can sign nothing which degrades 
and stigmatizes my constituents as unworthy to be partners with the free- 
men of Kentucky in a government of freemen. 1 can not ask them to 
take this Constitution. 1 can not tell them that it is just. 1 shall be 
bound in my conscience, and before God, to tell them it is unjust — ^that 
the liberties and equal rights of freemen have been trampled on. And why 
and wherefore? It has been avowed there is just as much danger to 
this Government if it is ruled by acres, where there are no men, or but few, 
as there would be if it were ruled by the voice of freemen who buy those 
acres. I have always understood it was intelligence and virtue embodied 
in just, upright and correct laws which constituted the basis of good govern- 
ment and not acres of land. Still, we pay one-tenth of the taxes of this 
Commonwealth, and we have one-thirty-eighth part of political power in 
the Senate and one-twentieth in the House. Has that political power ever 
been found injurious to the State of Kentucky ? Has the city of Louisville 
or the county of Jefferson ever failed in aught which leads to the prosperity 
of the State, to its glory, to equal laws and equal rights ? Where a stigma 
is placed on our representation in the halls of legislation, or in the halls 
here, we may be ardent in our support of our rights, and we may speak 
out as freemen should speak out when they feel there is a principle asserted 
which leads to the stifling of the voice of freemen. But they will teach 
us some other language, and it will be a long reign of servitude and oppres- 
sion, which will stifle our voice or induce us to lessen our opposition to 
oppression, wrong and injustice when we see it. There is no danger in 
giving the city of Louisville, and every city that shall arise in the Com- 
monwealth of Kentucky, whether they arise on the borders of the Ohio, 
or, like the great manufacturing cities that have grown up in England, shall 
rise in the interior, there is no danger in giving them equal rights and equal 
privileges. 

Thirty years ago next March, I went to Louisville, and at that time 
there were scarcely four thousand inhabitants in it, and now there is more 
than fifty thousand. Maysville has grown, within a less period of time, 
with an equal rapidity. Covington and Newport are also growing and 
a great many of the most useful manufactures are carried on within their 
borders. 

One gentleman says that this thing of equality of rights and equal 
representation according to numBer is an abstraction. It is at least a very 
practicable abstraction. Here are the counties of Nelson and Larue, having 
3,048 voters, with a senator in the General Assembly. The counties of 
Hardin and Meade, with 3,633 voters, have a senator, and Spencer and 
Bullitt, with 2,248 voters, have a senator. These three districts have a less 
number of voters than Jefferson and the city and have three senators, 
whilst Louisville and Jefferson county has but one. And yet gentlemen 
tell us it is an abstraction to claim equality of represenatation. Now, sir, 
votes go by majorities, but when we enter upon doubles and trebles, it is 
a palpable outrage upon the principles of equality. I know that the five 
or six thousand voters that are in Louisville are not much regarded in this 
contest, and when you ?o before the people of Kentucky with your Con- 
stitution, the balance of the State can afford to dispense with those votes. 
But reflect that there are individuals who are hostile to the Constitution 
that we are about making and who desire and wish it would fail, and 
reflect, when departing from the ereat principle of the equalitv of political 
rights, you will array numbers of enemies who will sympathize with us, 



JOHN F. HAGER. 



[John F. Hager, Lawyer, Ashland, Ky., was born in Floyd County, Ken- 
tucky, 1853; City Attorney, Ashland, Ky.; State Railroad Commissioner in 
1888; Instructor at State College in 1891.] 

LOCK AND DAM NO. 1. 

A speech delivered on behalf of the State of Kentucky at the exercises 
attending completion and reception of Government Lock and Dam No. 1, 
Big aandy river, at Catlettsburg, Ky., Thursday, November 17, 1904. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I shall testify by good intent, if not in apt words, the interest of a Big 
Sandian and Kentuckian in the great work of the permanent improvement 
of our dear Big Sandy; but first as a Big Sandian and secondly as a 
Kentuckian. 

We are met to receive from the honored representative of our glorious 
republic the tender of this munificent gift and to pledge anew our co-opera- 
tion that the work so auspiciously begun shall be carried on by us, by our 
children and the children of our children, if need be, to a full and glorious 
consummation. 

Kentucky is, and ought to be, proud that this work has been under- 
taken by the strong and capable hands and is backed by the plethoric purse 
of the national Government. She has a vital interest in the improvement 
of these waterways, having more than six hundred miles of river frontage 
on the Ohio, her western border being the Mississippi and the eastern 
border being completely bounded by the stream on which we are met. 

We congratulate ourselves that we who meet here are descendants of 
that sturdy band of pioneers who, before they had scarcely won Kentucky 
from the bloody hands of the savage Indians, set up a demand for the 
free navigation of the Mississippi, a demand which had its accomplishment 
in forcing the purchase of the territory of Louisiana and making the naviga- 
tion of that great stream open and free for all time. 

It was her great Clay who advocated and gave impulse to the policy 
that the national Government should undertake and conduct internal im* 
provements looking to the development of the highways of interstate 
traffic and commerce. It was a fault of our statesmen of a later period 
that they enforced a construction of the powers of the Federal Government 
prohibiting the undertaking of works of general public utility by the general 
Government. . 

We are now happily able to see the practical benefits of a reversal of 
this policy. 

Within the sweep of our vision are three great Commonwealths. Let 
us remember that old Virginia, the common parent of all the States con- 
cerned in this work, in ceding the territory which lies to the north of the 
Ohio river, gave a double pledge to freedom — one in the free navigation 
of the river Ohio, and the other in dedicating the territory of the North- 
west to freedom, so that man as man, and without regard to color, should 
ever be free therein. 



192 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

It has been said that the ordinance of '87 is one of three title deeds 
of American constitutional liberty. 

Let us recall the ambitious plans of our forefathers, who dreamed of a 
waterway up the James, through the Kanawha, down the Ohio and up 
the Missouri and Mississippi that should furnish means of transportation for 
the generations to come after them. 

The age of steam, of the iron horse and the rail answered all demands 
for transportation facilities for some generations following, but these ways 
are under private, even monopolistic, control, and, while we may not 
deny their benefits, they are purchased with a price, and often at too great 
a price. Charges for the use of these means of transportation are con- 
fessedly laid upon the theory of imposing all the traffic will bear, and 
railway traffic, without water competition, often becomes burdensome, 
even oppressive, in its cost. 

It is a manifest duty of the general Government to help the people 
to the best possible use of the natural highways with which they have been 
favored. 

We to-day dwell with pride upon the history and achievements of the 
fathers who conquered and preserved the goodly heritage of this wonderful 
valley of the Ohio. Without disparagement of all they achieved, we claim 
the right to turn our face to the rising glories of the East in this, the dawn 
of a new century of national existence. In the light of these grander days, 
we are thrilled with the pride and consciousness of growing power, greater 
prosperity and all that makes for the grandeur and greatness of our com- 
mon country. 

Within three years, private capital amounting to ten million dollars 
has been invested in the valley of the Big Sandy in the purchase of rich 
mineral treasures and in constructing means of transportation thereof to 
market. Within a few months^^ we shall have two railroads opened for 
traffic — one on the west bank and up the western fork, the other on the 
east bank and up the eastern fork of this river. 

The old question, "Can there be any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" 
is about to be answered, and that section of the two Commonwealths of 
Kentucky and West Virginia hitherto neglected, yea, even despised by the 
opulent denizens of the bluegrass and of certain parts of West Virginia, is, 
by the investment of private and public means, soon to be disenthralled, 
regenerated, made radiant and gloriously prosperous, so that the stone 
which the builders rejected is to become the head-stone of the comer of a 
glorious temple, dedicated to industry, the arts and manufactures. 

Great as are the material resources of this beautiful valley, along and 
up it even unto the mountain tops, are young men and women awaiting 
opportunities for education and improvement, which we can foresee as 
coming in the near future, and which, in their development and fruition, 
will give to these two Commonwealtlis the priceless heritage of a citizen- 
ship composed of Taw-abiding, God-fearing men and women, of brain, 
brawn and purpose to glorify the country which the Lord their God gave 
unto them. 

It is worth our while to labor for the consummation of an end so 
promising and so devoutly to be wished, and we hail these improvements 
as the harbingers of our dearest hope. 



BENJAMIN HARDIN. 

[Benjamin Hardin, Lawyer, Congressman, Debater, was born in West- 
moreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1784; died in Bardstown, Ky., September 
24, 1852; he removed to Kentucky in Childhood; received a primary educa- 
tion; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1806; began to practice at 
Bardstown; served in the State House of Representatives in 1810-11 and 
1824-25; member of Congress 1815 till 1817, and again from 1833 till 1837; 
Secretary of State of Kentucky, 1844 till 1847; member of the State Constitu- 
tional Convention of 1849.] 

THE WILKINSON AND MURDAGH CASE 

A speech mad0 to the jury in the court house at Harrodsburg, Ky., 
March 15, 1839, for the prosecution in the trial of Judge and Dr. Wilkinson 
and Mr. Murdagh, of Mississippi, for murder of citizens of Louisville, Ky. 

I shall, gentlemen, very humbly and very cordially congratulate you 
upon having this case brought so near a close. It has already been pro- 
tracted beyond the usual limits of criminal trials by the extraordinary 
ingenuity and uncommon array of talent enlisted on the occasion. The 
gentlemen on the opposite side have felicitated you upon the politeness 
of your patience and, among others, 1, too, return you my thanks for your 
attention. 

I little expected, when 1 engaged in this case in Louisville last winter, 
that I should ever have to address you on the subject. Although I have 
been fifty years practicing at the Kentucky bar, this is the first time I 
have ever had to address a jury in this place, and I can not help feeling 
that I am as much a stranger here as any gentleman who has addressed 
you. I shall, however, in speaking to you, apply myself to an exposition 
of the facts and of the law bearing upon them, and, whatever may be 
your feelings, you will, I am sure, keep in mind that you are bound to 
exercise your reason, and that you owe a duty of no ordinary responsi- 
bility to yourselves, your characters and your country. That duty is a 
sacred trust reposed in you which you can not weigh lightly without injury 
to yourselves as well as wrong to others. Nor must you surrender up 
your reason to your passions and allow yourselves to be carried away by 
the shouts of applause from fashionable audience as if you were in a 
theater where a Junius Brutus Booth and a Miss Ellen Tree exhibit the 
practiced arts of controlling feelings and successfully eliciting the noisy 
plaudits of excitement. This is not a theater, this trial is not a farce, nor 
are you seated on those benches for amusement. This, gentlemen, is a 
solemn court of justice, a solemn tribunal in which your judge, presiding 
with becoming dignity, represents the majesty of the law, and in which 
you are expected to deliberate with becoming gravity upon circumstances 
cf awful import. The appalling death of two fellow creatures is the 
occasion of your being assembled here, and the guilt or innocence of those 
at whose hands they fell is the object of your solemn investigation. 

By law, and in conformity with the original institutions upon which all 
law is founded, this trial was to have taken place where the occasion of it 

12 



194 KENTUCKT ELOQUENCE 

occurred — in the county of Jefferson. The Legislature, in its wisdom, has 
seen fit to change the venue from Jefferson to Mercer county, but why, 
I am unable to say. For even Colonel Robertson, the very able counsel 
for the defense, has admitted that, although for a time great excitement 
existed in Louisville, yet, after the investigation at the examing court, 
that excitement was altogether allayed. 

In this country experience has always taught us that, when a change 
of venue is sought, the object is not to obtain justice, but to evade it. The 
object is to thwart and embarrass the prosecution and multiply the chances 
of eluding the responsibility of the law. How is this effected ? is it not 
by a removal to some place esteemed favorable to the accused, by a 
removal so distant from the scene of action that the expense and incon- 
venience render it probable but few of the witnesses can attend? By a 
removal to where witnesses of a character dubious, if not infamous where 
known, may find credit because they are unknown? Here we are some 
seventy or eighty miles from the stage on which this tragedy was acted^ 
yet we are asked why we did not bring the stick and the cowhide and 
Bill Holmes, the pilot, as if we were afraid to produce them were they 
v/ithin our reach. I would ask the opposite side, in my turn, why gentle- 
men have brought us eighty miles from the scene where we could have 
elicited the truth in every particular? 

Mr. Prentiss (for the defense) really astonished me with one proposition 
he laid down with respect to the common law of this country, that 
every man is to judge for himself where the point of danger lies that 
entitles him to disable another, or to kill him, lest he might, in turn, by 
possibility, become the killed; so that, in fact. If it were so, the point of 
danger never could be defined by law, because what a brave man would 
consider no danger at all, a timid man would consider the point of danger 
bristling with a thousand deaths. Was there ever such a monstrous doc- 
trine recognized by the laws of any community ? 

No, gentlemen, the law recognizes no such absurdities. The law was 
laid down yesterday correctly by the district attorney, that when the 
killing of a man has taken place, it is murder, till the contrary is shown. 
What, then, becomes of this new doctrine, unknown to the law, that the 
slayer, and not the law, is to judge and presume the justification? The 
law itself says, all killing of one man by another is murder. The slayer, 
according to Mr. Prentiss, says: "Oh, no, I killed my man because I 
fancied he would kill me — it is not murder, it is justifiable homicide!" 
Yet the law again says if a sheriff who hangs a man by lawful authority 
and, in doing so, commits only a justifiable homicide, should, even for the 
best motives, instead of hanging the man, as bound to do, chop his head off 
with a sword, though death must necessarily follow either way, yet is he 
guilty of murder, and liable to the punishment, for the killing contrary to 
the prescribed mode of his duty. 

There are certain maxims of law laid down in the books which are 
never disputed, because they are founded upon reason and just principles; 
such, for instance, as these: If A kill B from necessity, to save his own 
life, the danger being undeniable, it is excusable homicide. If A kill B 
in a sudden heat of quarrel, it is manslaughter. If A kill B without what in 
law is called competent provocation, it is murder. If a man fire a pistol- 
ball into that crowd and kill a man, though it were his bosom friend 
against whom, personally, he could have no previous malice, it is murder, 



BENJAMIN HARDIN, 1«6 

though he did not intend that death. It is murder in the eye of the law, 
because the recklessness of human life implied in the rashness of the act 
shows that general malice to mankind, which is equally dangerous to the 
community as any private malice could be. All killing is murder, unless 
an excuse is shown, but words are no excuse, because they never bring 
a killing below the crime of murder; neither are indecent and contemptuous 
actions justification, according to Raymond and Blackstone. Here is a 
maxim in point : If there is a previous quarrel between A and B and, some 
time after, in consequence of the previous quarrel, they fight, then nothing 
connected with the previous quarrel justifies a killing, and it can not be 
excused unless it clearly appear that B in killing A had to do so to save 
his own life. 

Mr. Prentiss labored a position, and labored it ably, I admit, but Mr. 
Bullock had previously combatted its application successfully. The posi- 
tion is advanced upon the well-known quotation from Lord Hale: "If A, 
B and C be walking in company together, and C assault B, who flies, and 
is in no danger of being killed from Cs pursuit, unless present help be 
afforded, and A thereupon kill C in defense of the life of B, it seems that 
in this case of such inevitable danger of the life of B, the killing of C 
by A is in the nature of self-defense; but it must plainly appear by the 
circumstances of the case as the manner of assault, the weapons with which 
it was made, etc., that B's life was in imminent danger." 

A man seeing another kill a third person may kill the man about to 
commit the felony, but then it is at his peril he does it, and he is respon- 
sible to the law for his interference. Upon this text, if you are to acquit 
Judge Wilkinson, it must appear that, when the stabbing took place, there 
must have been manifest danger to his brother's life ; there must have been 
an apparent, an absolute necessity. To show that there was no such 
necessity, and to place before you in a clear view the leading features of 
the facts, I will now claim' your attention to the review I shall make of 
them. 

Mr. Redding keeps what is called a merchant tailor's shop on Main 
street in Louisville. His store is not far below the Gait House, on the 
opposite side. 

These three gentlemen now arraigned before you are residents of the 
State of Mississippi and formerly, as I am informed, were residents of the 
State of Virginia, and, for aught I know, of the same county, town or 
village. They came to Kentucky early in December, for what is no import 
that I can see, although it is made to cut a conspicuous figure here as a 
favor conferred on Kentucky — a contemplated marriage at Bardstown. 
They arrived at the Gait House. Where Judge Wilkinson had his clothes 
made up, if he had any prepared for the occasion, is not shown. Where 
Mr. Murdaugh had his made, if any, is not shown. But it is shown that 
Dr. Wilkinson was to have clothes made at Mr. Redding's store. They 
were made with great punctuality, and the doctor came to Redding's store 
at the appointed time. He tried on the new coat and seemed well pleased 
with it. So satisfied was he with the coat that he wore it on the spot and 
left a ;^100 bank bill on account of payment, requesting Mr. Redding to 
hold over the bank bill, which was of a Mississippi bank, till some ex- 
pected change for the better would take place in the rates of discount. 
Dr. Wilkinson then went away, wearing the coat, and desiring the other 
things to be sent to the Gait House, 



196- KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

When Dr. Wilkinson returned to Redding's store, accompanied by his 
brother and Mr. Murdaugh, some objection was made to the collar of the 
coat. It was no serious objection, we may suppose, for we hear from 
Mr. Prentiss himself, "the expectancy and rose of the fair State," that he, 
perhaps, would nol have been quite so fastidious. Perhaps some young 
fellow like my friend. Colonel Robertson, "the glass of fashion, and the 
mould of form," might have been a littfe squeamish, but, for myself, every 
one knows I am not particular. 1 never should have knocked down a tailor 
with an iron poker because there was a shade of fashion lacking in the 
collar of my brother's coat. The whole thing, I admit, is a matter of 
taste, the poker included. 

But there was, however, some objection to the fashion of the coat, 
and that objection was thought grave enough to enlist the triple wisdom 
of a dignified judge of the land, an eminent doctor of a distant State and 
a sage member of the Mississippi bar. Yes, with this formidable array of 
judicial wisdom, pharmaceutic skill and legal research, these three gentle- 
men came to a little store in Louisville to fight a poor tailor! And all 
about an unfashionable twist in the collar of a coat. 

To be sure, they came from the Eldorado of the South, with their 
thousands of bales of cotton condensed into their pockets. They were 
perfect magnets of attraction, for the secret of their lodestone lay wrapt 
up in their Mississippi bank notes. Hotel keepers were bowing to them 
on all hands, tradesmen and storekeepers honored the pavement they trod 
and, as to tailors, I am ready to believe they became perfectly fascinated 
with them. Nay, I even make no doubt that the keepers of watering 
establishments and medical springs submitted to the soft impeachment 
and became devoted to their interests. It is the necessary consequence of 
the influence of cotbn bales. 

Here was this hard-working tailor, ever on the watch for good cus- 
tomers, bowing to them assiduously, if not more so, than the hotel keepers 
or spring doctors, taking back his coat, I have no doubt, with tears in 
his eyes; but is it reasonable to suppose that, fascinated as he was by the 
ability of such customers to pay, he would be so blind to his own interests 
as to give unprovoked quarrel to such customers ? 

Judge Wilkinson is sitting on a stool at the stove and, when he sees* 
his brother about to pay for his pantaloons and vest, he interferes, without 
being called upon to do so, and opposes the payment for these things, 
upon which the tailor very naturally asks him what business he has to 
interfere. The judge, without telling him tha the was the doctor's brother, 
v/hich Redding did not know, and that as such he had a right to advise 
him, jumps up, snatches an iron poker, with which a man could be 
knocked down as readily as with a crow-bar, and for the small provocation 
of a tailor saying : "You make yourself a little too busy in the matter," 
ignorant that he was addressing a dignified judge, the judge aims a deadly 
blow at his head which, if not fortunately warded off, might have involved 
consequences to which I must advert. What does this prove ? If it proves 
nothing else, does it not show plainly that Judge Wilkinson is not quite 
as mild and forbearing in his disposition as his friend, Mr. Prentiss, would 
have you believe? Did Judge Wilkinson's conduct show that it was his 
belief men's passions should be subject to the control of law, if not reason ? 
That he was in principle a respecter of the law in this instance ? 

Judge Wilkinson, so remarkable for his mildness and forbearance, as 



BENJAMIN HARDIN. 197 

a sample of these qualities, aims a blow, as I said. before, at the tailor's 
head which probably would have killed him had he not warded off the 
blow with his arm in a manner to give great offense to Mr. Prentiss, who 
can not see the propriety of a tailor grappling with a judge to prevent a 
repetition of blows that might break his head. The little tailor, however, 
did grapple with the judge and, dragging him to the side door, he falls 
with his adversary out on the pavement. The tailor, though small, being 
strong and active, turned the judge under and, as he did so, Murdaugh 
hallooed out: "Kill the damned rascal;" a command which the doctor 
was about to obey, and when he was within a couple of inches of plunging 
his dirk into the tailor's heart, Mr. Redmond caught the doctor's arm. But 
for this interference it would have been the last of Redding's career. Mr. 
Murdaugh had hallooed out to the doctor: "Kill the damned rascal!" and, 
in the next breath: ""Part them! Part them!" This is easily accounted 
for. When he saw that Redding, by Redmond's interference, had gained 
the advantage, he perceived that the tables were turned and, fearful of the 
consequences, became as impatient to have them parted as he had before 
been anxious to have the tailor killed. Well, they are parted; and, when 
they get up, Dr. Wilkinson still has his knife drawn; Mr. Murdaugh has 
his knife drawn, and the judge has his favorite weapon, the poker. 

The little tailor's courage, notwithstanding this formidable array is up, 
and he steps forth a David before Goliath and offers to fight the whole 
three of them, if they lay aside their weapons. This, I think, however, 
was a mere brag with the "poker-players," for I do not believe he could 
have done it. Five witnesses swear that Dr. Wilkinson and Murdaugh 
had out their knives. Several concur that Dr. Wilkinson re-entered the store, 
with his knife drawn, demanding his $100 bank bill. All agree that he 
got it, and many agree that when he and his companions left for the 
Gait House, two went away exhibiting their knives and one rejoicing in 
the poker. The knives, to be sure, have been identified as white-handled 
knives. Mr. Prentiss, in that speech which you have all heard and admired, 
and which, it must be admitted, like a West India tornado, swept through 
this house, carrying ever3^hing before it, even to the reason of many, who 
heard it, seemed to think that we had some particular fancy for the handles 
of the knives, because they were white handles. He thought we dwelt 
uncommonly on the whiteness of the handles, till like spectres they were 
continually flitting before our visions. With all this poetical or forensic 
coloring we have nothing to do; we only identified them, and the gentle- 
man has failed to contradict us By proving that they were black, green or 
red. 

We have now, gentlemen, traced a small portion of this affair at the 
tailor's shop. In what occurred there immediately after what has been 
mentioned, we find the following facts established: Mr. Redding swears 
that he was advised to enforce the law against these gentlemen. Mr. 
Redding and Johnson went towards the mayor's office. They applied at 
the mayor's office to Mr. Pollard, clerk of the city court, and told him 
one of the gentlemen was named Wilkinson, and that the names of the 
others they did not know. They were told that they should have the 
names or, if they wished, they might have a blank warrant to be filled 
up with the names when ascertained. This Redding declined upon being" 
told that if he could meet the marshal, he could arrest the parties without 
a warrant. Redding and Johnson proceeded to the jail in search of the 
marshal. Not finding him there. Redding returns by Market street, where 



IW KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

he met Rothwell near his residence. As he tells Rothwell, his brother-in- 
law, the nature of the affair, Rothwell goes along with him; they were 
seen unaccompanied by any one enter the Gait House. Mr. Redding says 
when he went into the bar-room, he looked over the register and called 
for the names. Scarcely had he got them when Judge Wilkinson entered 
and stepped up to the counter to take a drink of water. Redding addresses 
him thus: ''Sir, I believe you are the gentleman who struck me with 
the poker in my own house this evening." If Judge Wilkinson was 
sorry for his impudence, why did he not say it was in a hasty moment 
and, upon reflection, he felt that it was wrong? Could Redding have 
resisted the ingenuousness of such an answer to his inquiry? Could he 
have harbored for a moment longer any irritation for an acknowledged 
injury? But what did Judge Wilkinson say or do? Why, he heaped 
insult on injury by an aristocratic allusion to the tailor's profession. "I 
will not," he replied, "fight or quarrel with a man of your profession." 
Now, although I agree with Mr. Prentiss on the subject — 

"Honor and shame from no conditions rise; 
Act well your part, there all the honor lies." 

And as Bums says — 

"The heart's ai the part, ai that's right or wrang;" 

yet we can not help imbibing with our literature and our sentiments many 
trifling prejudices from the mother country where aristocratic pretensions 
have too successfully attached disgraceful notions to certain pursuits of 
industry and, among these, the profession most sneered at by the would-be 
wits of the last century is that of a tailor. 

We have our bankers, lawyers and doctors arrogating one rank in our 
society; the statesmen, heads of department and officials another. Our 
mechanics and those who toil by the sweat of their brow to produce our 
riches are cast in the shade, ancl knowing as they do that such an attempt, 
•however noiselessly it is made, still exists palpably, is it any wonder they 
should become sensitive to every whisper that is breathed to mark the 
invidious distinctions? Call a man a knave, and he may forget it, but 
call him a fool and he never forgives you. Call a young lady a coquette, 
and she may pardon you, but tell her she is ugly and she will never abide 
you the longest day she lives. Tell a tailor he is a botch and he may not 
even get angry with you, but sneer at him about his goose and his pro^ 
fession and you insult him, though the words themselves are harmless. 
It is the illusion to prejudices that have existed which carries the poison 
of insult in its barb. Sir, we must not disguise the fact that there is a 
line of demarcation drawn by the proud and arrogant between themselves 
and those who live by the sweat of their brow. And to which, pray, is the 
country in its strength, prosperity and wealth indebted for its teeming 
productiveness ? Go to Louisville when a portion of the city is enveloped 
in flames and you will see a thousand mechanics rushing in the devouring 
element for the protection of property, while the lawyer and the judge 
and the haughty aristocrat walk about as spectators with their hands in 
their pockets. The mechanics compose the moving power and labor- 
working machine upon whose industry we all feed and fatten. Their labors 
are the wealth of the country, and when we cease to honor and cherish 
them, we poison the springs of our own invigorating prosperity and cut 



BENJAMIN HARDIN. 19» 

off the sources of our own enjoyments. Has not the history of our 
country shown, and will it not show again, that wTien the thunder-cloud 
of war gathers around our course, with a monstrous pusillanimity, we 
fling ourselves into their arms as our only hope and rescue ? Where, then, 
are your bowie-Icnife-and-pistol gentry, your duelists and your despisers 
of the man who lives by the sweat of his brow ? Sir, they will be found 
cowering and lurking where they may sniflf the battle afar off and hide their 
once lofty heads in ignoble safety. 

Judge Wilkinson goes to his room' where he finds Dr. Wilkinson and 
Mr. Murdaugh. Judge Wilkinson relates to them what had happened, and 
the three go down stairs, and when they got into the bar-room, Mr. 
Redding was at the counter, Mr. McGrath was inside of it, Mr. Reaugh was 
at the fire. Judge Wilkinson walked across the bar-room, some twenty- 
five feet, and then stood awhile with his eye fixed upon Mr. Redding, his 
foot advanced and, I make no doubt, grasping the handle of his bowie- 
knife. At that moment, Mr. Murdaugh went up to Redding and addressed 
him, saying: "I understand that you said I drew a bowie-knife on you 
in your shop this evening? If you say so, you are a damned rascal and a 
liar !" And, as he said so, he opened his knife and elevated it, as one said, 
or held it down, according to another. One person said of the knife: 
"Lord, how it gleamed in the candle-light!" The highest evidence of a 
man's dexterity and intent to use his weapons. 

We learn that Mr. Meeks was unknown to. many; a slender, small 
weakly man, with a bit of cowhide, the lash of which some one says 
was knotted. From what we can learn of this cowhide, I verily believe 
it would take at least five hundred knocks of it to kill a man, and I doubt 
if he could be well killed, after all, even with five hundred knocks of it* 
Meeks, unfortunately for himself, stepped up to Murdaugh and said : "Yes, 

you are the d d little rascal who did it." In reply to this, the very 

first lunge Murdaugh made at him severed vital artery and caused his 
instant death. A man stabbed through the heart no longer breathes, but 
he may stand a minute. Meeks fell and, in attempting to resume his 
feet, as he leaned on a chair, pitched forward on his face, and when exam- 
ined he was dead. 

When did Rothwell strike Murdaugh? Not until Meeks was killed. 
Then, it is proven, Rothwell struck with a cane and Murdaugh was beaten 
back ; then Rothwell was seen losing his grip of the cane in his right hand ; 
he was wounded. Who gave Rothwell that wound? Why, Murdaugh 
and nobody else. This accounts for Rothwell losing his grip of his stick 
or cane. Just then Judge Wilkinson came up behind with his bowie-knife 
in his hand, and General Chambers says he saw him make a lunge at 
Rothwell and stab him in the back. If two men are engaged in a fight, 
one with a dirk-knife like this, and the other with a stick, in the name of 
God let another with such a bowie-knife as this stand off; but if he must 
interfere on behalf of him who has the deadly weapon and against him 
who has not a deadly weapon, let him do the work of death front to front- 
let him stab in the breast and not in the back. 

By this time Dr. Wilkinson was down in the left-hand comer and 
Holmes over him. What does Judge Wilkinson do? He stabs Holmes 
in the arm; but he is not indicted for that. He stabs Rothwell when he 
is engaged with Murdaugh in the' right-han3 comer of the room, and again 
when in the left-hand corner, standing over Holmes, trying to get him off 
his brother. Rothwell had been disabled by two stabs. Judge Wilkinson, 



200 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

standing at the dining-room door, when Rothwell was saying nothing except 
in mercy trying to persuade Holmes to spare Dr. Wilkinson, comes across 
the room to the opposite door, finds Rothwell's back turned to him, and 
makes the last, the second thrust of the bowie-knife into his victim's back 
causing his death. 

Gentlemen, I have endeavored to trace facts as far as I have gone 
with minuteness and, having presented these facts to you, it is for you 
to determine whether they do not establish these conclusions. When the 
fight occurred in the bar-room, it was brought on by Judge and Dr. 
Wilkinson and Murdaugh intentionally. If they brought it on, did they 
fight in their own defense, or because they had drawn the conflict on 
themselves ? Could Meeks have inflicted death with a cow-hide, or Rothwell 
with a walking stick, so as to render the killing of them necessary or justi- 
fiable according to the true spirit of the law ? 

But here there is a proposition of law advanced by Mr. Prentiss which 
I must combat. He says that the law recognizes that the point of resistance 
unto death begins where a man himself believes the point of danger ought 
to be fixed. Then we have no law at all — we may bum up our law books, 
this revokes all they contain on the subject of homicide. Is it possible 
you, an intelligent jury, can be imposed upon by such sophistry? Is there 
so low an estimate of your understanding as to suppose it ? 

A is tried and acquitted because he is- a base coward and apprehends 
danger at a point where there was no danger at all. B is tried for precisely 
a similar homicide in every particular, and because he is not quite as big 
a coward as A, but apprehends some danger, is found guilty and sent to 
the penitentiary for a term' of years proportionate in duration to his lack 
of cowardice as contrasted with A. C, for precisely a similar homicide, 
because he is incapable of fear, is to be convicted of murder and straightway 
hanged ! 

Sir, the principle of self-defense does not warrant a man killing under 
the name of self-defense, if he is himself in fault by being the aggressor. 

Are we not relaxing the laws — which leads to anarchy, and from 
personal violence to popular usurpation ? Are we not relaxing our financial 
vigilance — which leads to corruption at the fountain head, and from private 
peculation to public defalcation? I tell you again and again, when you 
can lay your hands on great delinquents, make them an example; when 
you can grasp great defaulters, punish them; then will you more easily 
check pernicious discords and restore to its proper tension and tone the 
harmonizing power of your laws and your government. Whenever you 
see men wearing bowie-knives and daggers, hunt them down as you 
would bears and their cubs, from whom you can expect nothing but 
injury. The whole State of Kentucky looks to you this day for justice, 
for this is an awful investigation concerning the loss of two of her citizens. 
Two of our fellow citizens have been murdered and these gentlemen are 
here to answer for it. Some of the best blood of the country has been 
spilled as if in the pen of slaughtered hogs, but because relatives of one 
of these butchered men employ counsel to aid the prosecution in developing 
the truth and guarding against the delusions of sophistry from the greatest 
array of talent the country can boast, or that wealth unbounded can pro- 
cure, to elude the punishment due to the offended laws, you are told to 
take but a one-sfded view of the evidence and to decide at any rate against 
the paid advocate. I have not asked these gentlemen what they are to 



BENJAMIN HARDIN. 201 

be paid for eluding justice, because I did not consider .that a sort of evidence 
which ought to influence your .verdict. 

Gentlemen, one question is, Are we to tolerate this bowie-knife system 
under the false pretense of self-defense? I say, let your verdict act like 
the axe laid to the root of the tree and many a prayer will bless you for 
your timely check of its growth. Many a woman is made a mourning 
widow, many a child made a pitiable orphan and many a father childless 
by the use of the accursed weapon. You have it in your power to prevent 
the recurrence of such scenes. 

We have had an exhibition here in miniature of those Roman scenes 
v/hich prepared the public mind for the downfall of that great people. 
There was a vast amphitheater where the Roman people could be crowded 
together and, in the presence of some hundred thousand persons of both 
sexes, a man would be brought into the arena and a ferocious tiger turned 
in upon him. He might, or might not, possess skill or courage to meet 
the formidable beast and evade the deadly spring, but, if not so fortunate, 
when the tearing of Tiis vitals was seen and the craunching of his bones 
heard, the solitary shriek of the victim's wife, as it arose upon the air, would 
instantly be drowned by the acclamations and thunders of applause be- 
stowed upon the ferocious beast, prolonged by its renewed efforts to suck 
blood, tear the flesh and grind the bones of its prey. As we have no 
amphitheater, a hall of justice is made to answer for a miniature arena, 
and, as we can have no tigers, nor men who will submit to their victims, 
we have forensic gladiators and witnesses whose private feelings and char- 
acters may be wounded, lacerated and tortured to the infinite delight and 
encouraging shouts and plaudits of a fashionable auditory, while the victim 
is helpless and gloomy in his unmerited prostration. Yes, it is all for the 
amusement of enlightened minds, and it is intended, perhaps, for the educa- 
tion of the rising generation. But, I protest I can not yet perceive that 
it is any more for the honor of the applauders than it is necessary for 
the good of the country that these gentlemen should be honored and 
glorified for their dexterity in the use of the bowie-knife and dirk. In 
the time of public danger, or foreign invasion, is it these bowie-knife 
gentry, these pistol-men in private life, that mount the breach and face 
the danger? Are they the brother Jonathans that face John Bull and eye 
him and his scarlet coats with defiance? Where are they then? Why, 
like the gnats and mosquitoes, who glisten in the sunshine and the calm, 
but when the storm rages and the thunder growls, and the lightning flashes, 
and the earth is rocked to its center, they are stowed away from the 
danger, though they are sure to emerge from their hiding-place to annoy 
with their stings when the succeeding calm and sunshine invite them out 
once more. 

Gentlemen, I beg of you in the name of Him who sits upon the 
cloud and rides upon the storm, mete out the measure of justice to these men 
and vindicate the honor of Mercer county. But do not stigmatize your 
county by doing, as Mr. Prentiss would have you do, by shouting: "Glory! 
Glory! Go, ye righteous, go to your homes in honor and innocence." 
Whatever you may do, I shall content myself with the conviction that, in 
my professional capacity, I, at least, have done my duty. 

I have been deputed by the widowed mother of the murdered Rothwell, 
and at the instance of the mourning sisters, to implore your justice. I 
have closed my mission. Between you and your country, between you 
and your God, I leave their cause. 



BEN LEE HARDIN. 

[Ben Lee Hardin, Lawyer, Harrodsburg, Ky., was bom in Columbia, 
Adair County, July 21, 1844.] 

MOTHER EVE. 

An after-dinner ■ speech, delivered at the B. L. Powell banquet in the 
First Christian Church, January 19, 1906. 

In this family reunion of the descendants of Mother Eve, we are 
happy in the thought that all of our other cousins throughout the world 
will not feel hurt because they are not invited. Think of the inconvenience 
in procuring interpreters to explain to such a large number what I am 
talking about. Now, what you want to know this evening are facts — 
unquestioned and unimpeachable facts. And who is better able to give 
facts than I ? 

We have never had a complete biography of the first woman, and, 
being a kinsman, it is my pleasure and your profit that I detail certain 
incidents that occurred in that lady's life, heretofore unrecorded. In laying 
my premises, we will all agree that in the distribution of her estate we 
received share and share alike of one of her principal assets, and, although 
it has become a heavy heritage to many by reason of its own increment, 
they seem to be in the full enjoyment of their undisputed title. Hence 
the humiliation in studying our family tree too closely, to find that so 
much of the fruit has dropped off — and why? Because the rope broke. 

According to our best information, Mrs. Eve M. Adam died about six 
thousand years ago. In her girl life there can be no history of interest. 
She attended no kindergarten with jam and biscuit for lunch, nor did she 
finish with Vassar trimmings. Science of language in any tongue has 
absolutely failed to put a "y" in her name, for which we are indeed 
thankful. We find her before the footlights on the stage of action in 
the twinkling of an eye, from a spare rib to a roast — and what a fearful 
roast it was! 

The first banquet ever had was ^^ven by Eve, and Adam was the 
honored guest, and he ate all the fruit but the core. Before that apple- 
eating contest, Eve had wandered about the garden inhaling the sweet 
perfume of flowers with an awakening sense of beauty and ecstatic 
pleasure of and from Nature as it vitalized and blossomed in her presence. 
There were moments, perhaps, to her in which innocence and loveliness 
were so interwoven that the realization of a distinctive personality had 
not crystalized, nor ^ven vanity a throne and sceptre in the citadel of 
thought. 

With footfall light as the dew, she threaded the vine-embowered paths 
until she stood beneath the mistletoe. The new god of day, scheduled 
in its journey by divine edict, lanced and pierced the mist and foliage with 
beams of silver pencilings and tremblingly kissed the upturned face ; then, 
with romping zephyrs, ' joined in confusing, weaving and hueing the 
auburn tresses, woman's crown of glory. Perhaps the morning's mist 



BEN LEE HARDIN. 203 

from the Hiddekel and Euphrates intensified and emphasized her beautiful 
and close-fitting costume of atmosphere. Without further detailed de- 
scription of that intangible and inconspicuous gown, we will say that it 
was balmy and significant in its want of opacity. Thus standing in this 
pleasure garden, herself so new that retrospection could not be had because 
of no past, no evolution by progress to perfection, no consciousness from 
precept, teaching or experience, save that given by the imperial decree of 
Him who was the beginning and the word ; no judgments, opinions or con- 
clusions, no reasoning from cause and effect. 

And where was Adam? Presiding at an animal and bug convention, 
naming and registering live things. What did he know of the mistletoe 
bough ? He was not even in "deshabille" — not even a collar button. 

"Till Hymen brought his love delighted hour, 
There dwelt no joy in Eden's rosy bower. 
The world was sad, the garden was wild. 
And man the hermit sighed till woman smiled." 

Then the serpent appeared, crawling in the dust. And have you evey 
thought how the daughters of Eve have kept things crawling in the dust 
ever since? But Eve listened to the subtle tempter, and to her Eden was 
a paradise no longer. Methinks I can see her, with bowed head, in the 
light of the flashing sword of the cherubim, as she passed out of the 
garden, her heart surcharged with a grief so great and overwhelming that 
her companion in sorrow was lost in the shuffle. Methinks I can hear the 
wild lamentations: 

"Must I leave thee, paradise ? Is the garden of pleasure to be a tomb 
for the ashes of innocence and love ? Must all those string beans, squashes 
and Dnions go to waste ? Is there no chance to re- visit the bargain counter 
in that mantua-making emporium among the fig trees to replenish the 
slimmest of wardrobes? Oh, Adam, Adam, my vagabond husband, go to 
work. Do something. I can bear up if you will only hustle. Get to be 
a life insurance president, even if you have to sweat in the face while under 
investigati'on. Have you not, oh, my thin-clad husband, been selected 
and elected to have dominion over everything? Are you afraid of a 
contest when the returns are all in and your certificate made out in your 
own handwriting? Skin a few goats, dear old boy, and let's have some 
more clothes." 

Adam skulked. Out upon the heath of thorn and thistle, silken 
threads of hope became as ragged moonbeams dancing and flickering 
through dead vines upon sombre cliffs, and in the gloaming the water- 
wraith from the vasty deep hovered o'er her head and, shaking its black 
pinions, completed her baptism of despair. 

And yet it was but the beginning. There must yet be a fulfillment of 
the curse of disobedience. Multiplied sorrows yet unfelt, because to Eve 
it was a separate condemnation. But we are not warranted in the thought 
that in the climax of an agonized heart a merciful God mellowed and 
softened the poignancy when she became a mother? 

"Ere yet her child had drawn its earliest breath 
A mother's love begins, it grows till death; 
Lives before life, with death not dies, but seems 
The very substance of immortal dreams, 
For 'tis a sight that angel ones above 
May stoop to gaze on from their bowers of bliss. 
When Innocence upon the breast of Love 
Is cradled in a sinful world like this." 



204 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

(Original and borrowed — pick it out.) Disobedience was her first and 
only sin, yet she justified it not. She put in no plea but that of frailty. 
Could she not so have defended her overt act as to truthfully declare a 
want of intent ? 

And old darkey was once arraigned before a police tribunal, charged 
with misappropriating a pair of trousers. On being asked to show cause 
why judgment should not be rendered, replied: 

"I stole dem britches; I acknowledge the corn; 
But it warn't no crime as shore as you born. 
If de motive wuz right, den's whar d^ sin? 
I stole dem britches to be baptized int" 

But in that condemnation and decree that her sorrows should be many, 
that her banishment from the beautiful and enchanting Eden was for all 
time, that no penance or atonement could modify the decree and sentence 
of an unchanging God, yet she murmured not. She was created to be 
a help-meet and companion, and loyal she was to the pronunciamento of 
creation's executive. And the further condition -of the (to her) mysterious 
dispensation was motherhood. She accepted the sublimest and ever-to-be- 
reverenced purpose of her creation, and enwreathed upon her brow a 
diadem so effulgent that it lights the way from a sin-cursed world to the 
Eden above. Is there a name this side of heaven as sweet and tender as 
mother? It is lisped in helpless infancy, it dwells upon the lips of child- 
hood, is reverently spoken in matured life, is not forgotten in old age, 
and when passing to unknown shores it is echoed back to earth again. And 
this is another legacy, another bequeathment to the daughters of Eve; 
and do we all not feel that the pure gold of that heritage is love? — z. 
love so great, so emphasized that it greets death itself as a privilege. Now 
it may be that during the time that Eve was attending to her household 
duties and seeing to the children, there were some domestic infelicities 
existing between the parents. It may be that Adam, in trying to exercise 
dominion over every living thing, found that his wife was very much 
alive, and that his authority over her was hardly a tenure; and, coming 
out second best, he hied himself to some corner grocery, there to discuss 
the tariff, territorial expansion or rebates. Judging by certain traits in the 
line of descent, we can authoritatively state that Adam made but few 
touchdowns with a hoe during the cropping seasons, but, having a free 
ticket and a reserved seat at the menagerie, he whiled away his nine 
hundred and thirty years in fretting over his want of prominence at the 
family reunions. Mother Eve for many thousand years has been enjoying 
the forgiveness of him whose law she transgressed in her hour of tempta- 
tion. Her earthly crown of maternity has been exchanged for a thomless 
one of eternal glory. And, yet again, she has left a heritage to her 
daughters which her sons should hold in sacred trust. But a hushed adu- 
lation pointing to the pure and glorious women who adorn, elevate and 
link our hopes to a higher and better life only adequates the truth in 
heart's language by the tender and respectful silence. 

The life of Mother Eve was but the life 'of us all, and is but a tale that 
is told. Dust she was and unto dust she returned. That dust maketh 
not unclean any page in history, and may be not believe that it has been 
scattered by the winds of heaven to aid in sustaining the purity of her 
daughters when confronted with the tempter's wiles? 



JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN. 

[John Marshall Harlan, Associate Justice United States Supreme Court, 
since November 29, 1877; born in Boyle County, Kentucky, June 1, 1833; 
graduate Centre College, Kentucky, 1850; LL. D., Bowdoin, 1883, Centre Col- 
lege and College of New Jersey, 1884; studied law at Transylvania Univer- 
sity; practiced law at Frankfort; County Judge, 1858; Whig candidate for 
Congress in Ashland District, 1859; elector on Bell and Everett ticket, 1860; 
removed to Louisville in 1867 and practiced law there; Colonel Tenth Ken- 
tucky Regiment; in Union Army, 1861-63; Attorney General, Kentucky, 1863- 
67; returned to practice; Republican nominee for Governor, 1871; and again 
in 1875; member LfOuisiana Commission, 1877; one of America arbitrators 
on Behring Sea Tribunal, which met in Paris, 1893.] 

THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 

A speech delivered at a banquet given by the members of the bar of the 
United States Supreme Court to Justice Harlan at Washington, D. C, on the 
9th day of December, 1902. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Bar: 

On your behalf, as well as on my own, I thank the President for 
honoring this occasion by his presence. We are all glad that, notwithstand- 
ing the pressure of public engagements, he has given us the pleasure of 
seeing him here. In him are most strikingly illustrated the possibilities 
of American citizenship. At the time of my accession to the bench, the 
distinguished citizen who is now the chief executive of the nation was still 
at the university, little dreaming that there was before him a career which, 
within a very few years after his graduation, would make his name 
known throughout the civilized world — a career remarkable for its courage. 
Us directness of purpose and its fidelity to the highest ideals of duty to 
his fellowman and to his country. We welcome him to this banquet. 
In common with our countrymen everywhere, we recognize his elevated 
character and his patriotism, and earnestly hope that his life may be long 
spared to the American people. 

My first duty as well as pleasure is to thank you, gentlemen of the 
bar, for the signal honor you have done me. I had supposed that this, 
the last day of the twenty-five years of my judicial service, would pass 
without observation, except perhaps within the limits of my own domestic 
circle. But you ordered otherwise, and I am here, at your invitation, 
grateful for this generous expression of good will and personal interest. 
It is more than my poor services have deserved. If my countrymen think 
that the duties of the great office so long held by me have been discharged 
with conscientious regard for the law, or for what I deemed to be the law, 
and with an eye single to the ends of justice and right and truth, my 
descendants will have in this estimate of my judicial life a legacy more 
precious than any that I could, possibly leave to them. 

It is natural, gentlemen of the bar, that on this occasion my mind 
should run back over the period of my service on the bench and recall 
something of the men and measures that have made this last generation so 
memorable in the history of the country. 



206 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

This is not the occasion to do more than mention the names of the 
great captains on both sides of our Civil War — Grant, Sherman, Thomas, 
Meade, Sheridan, Lee, Jackson, the two Johnstons and Longstreet, all of 
whom, save Longstreet, have long ago passed over to the silent majority, 
leaving the memory of their splendid courage, their marvelous military 
skill and their high character, as a rich legacy to the whole American 
people. And yet, as I must on such an anniversary think of the march 
of events as well as mark the flight of the years, I can not but rejoice 
v/ith every true American at the thought of the perfect healing of those 
old wounds, and at the fact that 

"The severed sections, weary of debate," 

are again one people, loving the one flag, acknowledging the one Consti- 
tution, and abiding loyally by the decisions of the one supreme tribunal. 
But my mind recalls more especially those with whom I have been asso- 
ciated in the administration of the law. In doing this, memories crowd 
upon me that can not well be repressed. There come before me the faces 
of many, now gone, who were dear to me and with whom I had the 
privilege of being associated in judicial work, and, also, the faces of others, 
now gone, with whom I had cordial personal relations and whose luminous 
arguments at the bar of the supreme court will long be remembered by 
me. The country will not forget — I can not forget — the services of 
Waite, Swayne, Clifford, Miller, Field, Strong, Bradley, Woods, Hunt, 
Matthews, Gray, Blatchford, Lamar and Jackson. Nor can we forget 
such splendid leaders of the bar as Harrison, Campbell, Bartlett, Evarts, 
Thurman, Trumbull, Rockwood, Hoar, Black, Carpenter, Ranney, Conkling, 
McDonald, Phelps, William Allen Butler, Phillips, Wallis, Semmes, Goudy, 
Swett, Storrow, Tucker, Hoadly, Hitchcock and Davidge. It was to me 
delightful as well as instructive to hear those distinguished lawyers discuss 
important principles of constitutional and general law. In recalling the 
services of such eminent judges and lawyers, the thought comes to me 
that we may draw from their lives inspiration for renewed and higher 
efforts to elevate the standards of our noble profession, and to increase 
the respect of the people for the law as the only foundation upon which 
free government can securely rest. 

I have not been insensible, gentlemen, to the distinction, the mere 
worldly distinction, of a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court of the 
United States — a tribunal once characterized by that great lawyer, Horace 
Binney, as the "august representative of the wisdom and justice and con- 
science of the whole people, in the exposition of their Constitution and 
laws;" as the "peaceful and venerable arbitrator between the citizens !n 
all questions touching the extent and sway of constitutional power;" and 
as the "great moral substitute for force in controversies between the 
people, the States and the Union." It is, indeed, a high honor to be a 
member of such a tribunal. But permit me to say that there has been 
no moment during my term of service when I have not been deeply 
sensible of the awful responsibility resting upon every member of that 
court. The power of the supreme court for good, as well as for evil, can 
scarcely be exaggerated. If it can not actually shape the destiny of our 
country, it can exert a commanding influence in that direction. It can 
by its jud8:ments strengthen our institutions in the confidence and affec- 
tions of the people, or, more easily than any other department of the 



JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN. 207 

Government, it can undermine the foundations of our governmental system. 
It can undo the work of the fathers by abrogating old canons of constitu- 
tional construction that have helped to make this the foremost nation of 
the earth. It can— to use the words of Chief Justice Marshall— "explain 
away the Constitution of our country, and leave it, a magnificent structure, 
indeed, to look at, but totally unfit for use." But we all rejoice that it 
has it in its power to hold, and, in the judgment of America, it has steadily 
held, the country in the path of safety so that to-day our people believe, 
as we trust they will always believe, that the preservation of the Union, 
under the Constitution, is the surest guarantee of liberty regulated by law 
as well as of the success of all movements and all policies demanded by 
the common good. If our institutions should be assailed and overthrown— 
no matter by whom or in what way — whether by arbitrary power, by 
corruption, or by lawlessness, the last citadel to be taken by the assailants 
will be our incomparable judicial organization. 

That the court holds the unique position it does, that it is invested 
with the extraordinary authority it wields, and that we have a judicial 
system which Washington declared was the chief pillar of the national 
Government, is due primarily to the far-seeing statesmen of the Revolu- 
tionary period. Prior to that time a few individual writers like Mon- 
tesquieu had expressed the thought that the separation of the judicial 
department from other departments of government was essential to liberty. 
But it remained for the American people, in advance of all other peoples, 
to distribute the powers of government among three separate, co-equal 
and co-ordinate departments, and to secure that distribution against sudden 
change by means of a Constitution that should be the supreme law of the 
land and therefore binding upon all. That doctrine is the foundation of 
our freedom. Remove that foundation, and our institutions will be so 
impaired as to become the prey of absolutism or anarchy. The experience 
of more than a century places it beyond question that the independenca 
of the judiciary, and its authority, uncontrolled by other departments of 
the Government, or by popular whim and passion, to declare the mean- 
ing, scope and limitations of our Constitution, are vital to the existence 
and well-being of the republic. 

It may be said — indeed, it has been said by way of criticism — that 
the action of the supreme court has not always met with universal approval, 
and that its members have often differed upon grave questions of consti- 
tutional law. Such occasions will always arise in the case of any tribunal 
constituted by human authority. But it is gratifying to know that those 
occasions have nol weakened the position of the court before the country. 
There is abundant reason to believe that the people confide in its patriotism, 
its integrity and its learning, and have an abiding faith that no permanent 
or irreparable harm will come to the republic by any action that court will 
ever take. In the early history of our country it was the fear of some 
that the supreme court, exerting the enormous power conferred upon it, 
might ultimately so change our form of government as to destroy or 
endanger the essential rights of the States and imperil those fundamental 
rights of life, liberty and property which belong to free men. But few, 
if any, now entertain such apprehensions, and there is practical unanimity 
among statesmen, jurists and the people as to the essential nature of our 
institutions. It is now the established and accepted doctrine that the 
Constitution, emanating from and representing the people of the United 
States, creates a government with .certain powers for defined purposes 



208 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

and with paramount authority within the sphere of the exercise of those 
powers, leaving to the States full control in all matters the supervision and 
determination of which they have not surrendered and which have not 
been committed by the people to the national Government. No American 
lawyer now questions the supremacy of the Constitution in respect of 
every subject entrusted to that Government, or the wisdom of the pro- 
vision made for its final interpretation, or the absolute necessity for the 
maintenance of our liberties, that all the rightful powers of the States be 
preserved and respected. Every patriot recognizes the fact that the best 
friend of the Union is he who recognizes the just rights and powers of 
the States, and the best friend of the States is he who recognizes the just 
rights and powers of the Union. 

God bless our dear country. God bless every effort to sustain and 
strengthen it in the hearts of the people of every race subject to its juris- 
diction or authority. 

Gentlemen of the bar, my relation to this occasion suggests that 1 
must not further detain you. Let me again thank you with all my heart 
for the great honor you have done me and for this marked evidence of 
your respect and confidence, and to assure you that, while life lasts, I will 
hold you in aflfectionate remembrance. 



JAMES HERVY HAZELRIGG. 

[James Hervy Hazelrigg, Lawyer, Frankfort, Ky., was born in Grassy 
Lick, Montgomery County, Kentucky, December 6, 1848; graduate of Ken- 
tucky University, 1871; LL. D., Central University of Kentucky; served in 
Confederate Army 1864-5; held numerous city and county offices; Cliief 
Justice Kentucky Court of Appeals, 1892-1901; Curator of Kentucky Univer- 
sity; member Faculty of Kentucky University Law School.] 

ALL HONOR, THEN, TO THE OLD SOUTH! THE OLD DIXIE! 

THE WAR-TIME LAND OF "CINNAMON SEED 

AND SANDY BOTTOM!" 

An address of welcome delivered to Confederate Veterans at the Con- 
federate Reunion, at Louisville, Ky., May 29, 1900. 

In recent years, we have heard much about an Old South and a New 
South. It seems to me that on this occasion the whole South — ^both the 
old and the new — have come up to see us. And I am glad, indeed, that 
nobody has stayed at home! While it is to be understood at the outset 
that the tenderest and choicest bits of the fatted calf are intended for the 
old, yet I have no doubt the new will manage to do fairly well. Truth 
to say, this New South is rather a pushing, aggressive quantity, and don't 
have to be looked after to see that it gets its share of goodly things; in 
which respect, I may be permitted to say, it is somewhat a "chip off the 
old block." Indeed, we look to the new as differing from the old -only in 
point of years. 

We know full well that, whatever of grit and courage and fire there 
may be, and is, in the new, the inspiration of it all springs from the 
chivalry and the glory -of the old. 

Whatever there was of gallantry and dash in young Hobson, of the 
Merrimac, found its source in the heroism of that old Confederate tarheel — 
the elder Hobson — who gave his life for the cause ! 

All honor, then, to the Old South! the Old Dixie! the war-time land 
of "cinnamon seed and sandy bottom!" 

All honor, too, to the new — albeit, if there be good in the new, it is 
because "truth crushed to earth" has risen again! And it could not be 
otherwise than that there should be an 'offspring of glorious fruitage from 
the sacrifices an J struggles of the fathers of the '6o's! It is an absolute 
law of Nature that nothing ever existing is lost — no righteous cause is ever 
lost. The lessons of that long struggle, the trials and sufferings of the 
"soldiers in gray," the heroism of the men and the tears and loving sacrifices 
of the women of the South, will forever live in story and in song to inspire 
true manhood and womanhood to noble deeds. 

What wonder is it, then, that, founded on the old, there is of the 
South of to-day a race of brave men and true women ? 

It is to these men and women of that fair land — veteran and son of 
veteran — ^that Kentucky veterans give the glad and welcome hand. We 
meet, my comrades, while we may, to inculcate and emphasize the lessons 

18 



210 EENTUCKT ELOQUENCE. 

of the great struggle. To-morrow the duty must be committed to younger, 
though not less loyal, hearts. Even now a great host has passed away ! 

Davis and Lee and Jackson have crossed over the river and are at 
rest under the shade! While Longstreet and Gordon and Buckner, with 
the glorious remnant gathered here, are waiting at the gates! 

Therefore, tears and love for the old, and greetings of joy for the new! 
All are equally and thrice welcome ! 



EDWARD W. C. HUMPHREY. 

[Edward W, C. Humphrey, Lawyer, Louisville, Ky., was born in Louis- 
ville, Ky., May 23, 1844.] 

ROBERT E. LEE. 

An address delivered at the Confederate reunion held at Louisville, Ky., 
June 14, 1905. 

President Roosevelt said on one occasion: "The world has never seen 
better soldiers than those who followed Lee ; and their leader will undoubt- 
edly rank as, without any exception, the very greatest of all great captains 
that the English-speaking have ever brought forth, and this although the 
last chief of his antagonists may himself claim to stand as the full equal 
of Marlborough and Wellington." 

A captain concerning whom such a thing could be said, and by a man 
so well qualified to judge, by a man who has won for himself a splendid 
name in public life, must have possessed that rare combination of qualities, 
mental, moral and physical, without which no one can be called truly 
great. His career as a soldier terminated at Appomattox on the 8th of 
April forty years ago.' And, across the long interval, there comes to us a 
picture in whose outlines we perceive the highest type of a military 
commander and the ngblest conception of a Christian gentleman. 

Indeed, there comes to us a light so dazzling that our mental vision 
is blinded, and the real proportions of the man are in danger of being 
obscured in the halo which has gathered about him. This is true of, in some 
degree, every one who in public life rises head and shoulders above all 
the men of his age. But when voices from every quarter of the globe, 
from friends and foes, from the home folks and the strangers, from both 
sides of the Atlantic and the Pacific, unite in one unbroken chorus of admira- 
tion, then it becomes no easy matter to look back at Robert E. Lee over 
that long period with unclouded eyes, and discern the man as he was, the 
captain in the splendor of his achievements. Moreover the difficulties 
v/hich confront the author of an article such as this are enhanced by the 
fact that his fame has extended until it has acquired a wideness like the 
wideness of the sea, and by the fact that, beyond his official reports and 
a few letters, no written narrative, which might guide us through the 
tangled labyrinth of controversy concerning the Gettysburg campaign, 
and which might have thrown a flood of light into many a dark corner 
and into many a forest, where doubts and misconceptions have gathered 
thick and fast as to his purposes, designs and actions at critical points, and 
v/hich would have preserved so much of priceless value, which is rapidly 
passing, or which has already gone over the hills into an eternal oblivion, 
and also by the fact that into the mightiness of his exploits there enters 
so much that is purely technical and military in its character, such as 
only a trained soldier could comprehend and only a genuine historian could 
adequately reveal. 

Robert Edward Lee, the fourth child of Henry Lee and Anne Hill 
Carter, was bom on January 19, 1807 (nearly one hundred years ago), 



21S KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

at the manor of the Lee family, in the same room where two of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence first saw the light — Richard 
Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee. 

This ancient manor house, called Stratford, is situated in Westmoreland 
county, on a neck of land between the Potomac and the Rappahannock, 
along whose banks armies so mighty have gathered and battle so bloody 
have been fought that they might be called the "warlike" rivers of Virginia. 
Among the colonial manors now left in the Old Dominion, there are 
two which in memory at least can never die — Mt. Vernon and Stratford. 

Mt. Vernon, almost in sight of a capital now one of the greatest in 
our modem world, kept in complete repair by a grateful nation, visited 
year by year by pilgrims from every land and every shore, it commem- 
orates the immortal renown of a great chieftain who carried his people 
through a mighty revolution, crowned at l^st with complete success. 

Stratford, buried deep in the woods, in a lonely region, rarely seen, 
crumbling slowly into decay, a fit memorial of that "Lost Cause" to 
which its most illustrious son devoted a character so elevated, a military 
genius so noble, that his fame will ever be cherished as a part of our 
national glory. 

Nearly seventy-four years ago, a morning paper in Washington con- 
tained the following announcement: 

"Married June 20, 1831, at Arlington House, by the Rev. Mr. Keith, 
Lieutenant Robert E. Lee, of the United States Corps of Engineers, to 
Mary A. R. Custis, only daughter of G. W. P. Custis." 

One present on that occasion said: "Beautiful old Arlington was in 
all her glory that night. The stately mansion never held a happier 
assemblage. Its broad portico and wide-spreading wings held out open 
arms, as it were, to welcome the coming guest. Its simple Doric columns 
graced domestic comfort with a classic air. Its halls and chambers were 
adorned with the portraits and heroes and with illustrations and relics of 
the great Revolution and of the Father of his Country, and, without and 
within, history and tradition seemed to breathe their legends upon a canvas 
as soft as a dream of peace." 

George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of General Wash- 
ington and the grandson 'of Mrs. Washington, devised the Arlington estate 
to his daughter, Mary A. Randolph Custis. 

The old mansion at Arlington stands as of old upon the brow of a hill 
overlooking the wide and historic Potomac river and the city of Washing- 
ton, "with its roof and spire and dome, and the homes of the living half 
revealed amid the foliage," once the home of the Lees, filled with life 
and joy and gladness, but now in the midst of a national cemetery, where 
but a little while ago 

The surging night winds 
Pale winter robes have spread 

Above the narrow palaces 
In the cities of the dead. 

The position which Lee occupied at the opening of our Civil War was 
so commanding in its character, and so unique of its kind, as to be almost 
'(if not entirely) without parallel in human history. 

His high reputation for military skill and knowledge, his personal and 
professional character were so pure, his mind so sound and well balanced, 
his fidelity to duty and to every trust imposed upon him, that his ability 



EDWARD W. C. HUMPHREY, 213 

and shoulders were broad enough to conceive and carry out great designs — 
all these had become so well established that both governments sought 
to obtain his service, and both armies contended for the honor of being 
placed under his command. It was well known that General Scott had 
designated Lee as by far the fittest man to succeed himself as commander- 
in-chief of the Federal armies. It was a foregone conclusion that he would 
at once obtain high command in whichever army he might choose to enter, 
and whichever way he might turn his face a wide road to station and 
renown seemed to open out before him. He was not destitute of ambition 
(no great captain ever has been) , and yet he was so modest and conscien- 
tious that he strove with all his strength to find the path where duty and 
honor called. 

That General Lee was true and sincere in his devotion to the Union, 
and to the general Government which he had served so long, and that 
he foresaw the coming of civil war with the keenest sorrow and distress, 
can not be doubted. He would have been the very last man to desire a 
disruption of our Federal Union, or a conflict at any time, or in any way, 
over the institution -of slavery. A slaveholder himself, he knew full well 
(as did General Washington before him) how great were the evils and 
responsibilities inseparably connected therewith. His clear and lucid intel- 
lect could not for an instant be clouded by the political theories of the 
extreme Southern men. He had no faith in secession, either as a constitu-* 
tional right or a practical remedy. In January, 1861, he wrote thus to his 
son : "Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitu- 
tion never exhausted so much labor, wisdom and forbearance in its forma- 
tion, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was 
intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It is 
intended for a 'perpetual union,' so expressed in the preamble, and for 
the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be 
dissolved by a revolution, or the consent of the people in convention 
assembled." 

Lee had that exalted idea of duty, and of the subordination of the mili- 
tary to civil authority, and that genuine love for his old comrades and for 
the army wherein they all rendered a common service, that it cost a terrible 
mental struggle to resign his commission. In a letter written on April 20, 
1861, he said: "It (his resignation) would have been presented at once, but 
for the struggle it cost me to separate myself from a service to which I 
have devoted the best years of my life and allihe ability I possessed." 
And in a letter written on the same day to his sister, Mrs. Marshall, of 
Baltimore, he said: "The whole South is in a state of revolution into 
which Virginia, after a long struggle, has been drawn; and, though I 
recognize no necessity for this state of things, and would have forborne 
and pleaded to the end for redress of grievance, real or supposed, yet in 
my own person I had to meet the question whether I should take part 
against my native State. With all my devotion to the Union, and the 
feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able 
to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, 
my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission and, save in 
defense of my native State ... I hope I may never be called upon to 
draw my sword." 

The service rendered by Lee in the first year of the war in West 
Virginia, along the southern coast, and as military adviser at Richmond, 
may be passed over down to that ever-memorable June 1, 1862. The 



2U KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

battle of the Seven Pines had just been fought, and General Joseph E. 
Johnston (an oftlcer second only to Lee) had been severely wounded, and 
on that day Robert E. Lee was assigned to the command of that immortal 
army of Northern Virginia. 

Robert E. Lee^ now for the first time in supreme command of a 
powerful army, and in a position to show the world what was in him, 
v/as in the fifty-sixth year of his age, "in perfect health, vigorous, robust 
and of commanding presence." All he asked was the opportunity, and now 
that opportunity had come, and the world did not take long to discover 
that on June 1, 1862, a great captain had been born. He soon acquired, 
and held unbroken to the last, "the entire confidence of his government 
and the unquestioned and enthusiastic devotion of the army. He had no 
rival either in the council at Richmond or in the colloquies around the camp- 
fires." Military critics have pointed out his wondrous skill in strategy and 
battle tactics. The broad and comprehensive view over wide tracts of 
country, its mountains, rivers and valleys, and the power so to combine 
the movements of a great army that its full strength shall fall at the true 
point within a given time. And on the battlefield to plan out and forecast 
his way toward the desired end; and, above all, that divine faculty, given 
by the Divine hand to but few of the children of men, which enables a 
great soldier, amid the "confusion chaos" of a bloody battle, to read 
aright the ever-changing fortunes of the struggle, and to detect with cer- 
tainty the time when and the point where the decisive blow must be 
struck. 

Again, Lee excelled in what is called defensive-offensive warfare. He 
could combine defensive with offensive tactics, passing from one to the 
other with the rapidity of lightning and with the force of an avalanche. 
Witness in the "Seven Days Before Richmond" where, after standing for 
a little while, passive, in front of McClellan's army, he suddenly fell upon 
it in a series of fierce and continuous assaults, and especially at Chan- 
cellorsville, where he fell, like a sledge-hammer, first upon that part of 
the Federal army under Hooker, then upon that part under Sedgwick, and 
then upon Hooker again. 

The devotion of his men, who can describe it ! In the winter of 1863-64, 
while the soldiers of the army of Northern Virginia were dwelling in little 
huts along the Rapidan and Mine Run, the appearance of General Lee riding 
through the cantonments was always the signal for a great uproar, and 
the cheers which greeted him could be heard far and away through the 
forest and along the banks of the rivers. 

"Scarcely a day passed during the sojourn of the Confederate army 
in camp that did not see a full regiment of Confederates in hot chase across 
ihe fields after the swift-footed rabbit, and at every step was heard wild 
shouts and yells. Often was it said, when this far-resounding enthusiasm 
came rolling across the hills : There goes Marse Robert or an old hare.' " 
(Henry A. White.) 

There came a great crisis on. the second day of that terrible battle in 
ihe Wilderness. Grant had massed nearly one-half his army on his left 
under Hancock; that gallant soldier, pushing on with all but irresistible 
might, had broken the corps of A. P. Hill and seemed about to drive it 
from the field, when Longstreet and his long-expected corps came rushing 
up, eager for the fray. Lee galloped to the front, where a brigade under 
General Gregg was forming for a charge, the light of battle shining in 
his deep, luminous eyes, as he calls out: "My Texas boys, you must 



EDWARD W. C. HUMPHREY. 215 

charge !" He placed himself just behind the line to go with them into the 
fight. "Suddenly the men divine his desperate purpose, and they begin 
to shout, 'Mars Robert, go back,' 'Go back. General Lee!' Then the 
artillery men whom Lee had passed respond with the answering call, 'Come 
back, come back. General Lee!' Lee rides onward, waving his old gray 
liat, but the very heavens are rent with the cry, 'Lee to the rear! Lee to 
the rear !' A tall, lank Texas sergeant, in gray rags, moves from the ranks, 
seizes the bridle rein and turns Traveler's head to the rear. A look of 
disappointment crossed the face of Lee, but he yields." (H. A. White.) 

"The Texas boys" then sprang forward in a charge wherein more than 
one-half of them fell. 

In the last days of July, f862, a great Federal army lay at Harrison's 
Landing, still menacing Richmond. Another army under Pope was pushing 
south into Central Virginia, and how to strike it without exposing Richmond 
to capture was the problem. Lee, moving as he always did, behind a 
cloud of darkness drawn about him by the indefatigable Stuart, slipped 
away from McClellan for a rush at Pope, who saved himself by a quick 
retreat across the Rapidan. That wonderful semi-circular march of Jack- 
son's corps clear around into the rear of the Federal army, while Lee 
held that army in its position by false attacks along the river, must ever 
remain one of the boldest and most brilliant strategic moves in modem 
times. Of the battle itself — called Groveton 'or Second Manassas— the 
nerve and skill with which Jackson held and baffled Pope, the swift march 
of Longstreet to the battlefield, the coolness and audacity of Lee holding 
back the Federal army with the single corps of Jackson, while quickly 
and secretly he massed the splendid corps of Longstreet on his left, and 
at the right moment let it slip like a hound from its leash, to rush on like 
a tempest, driving all before it and speedily deciding the fortune of the 
day — here we have the great commander at his best. 

Of Lee's invasion of Maryland, his capture of Harper's Ferry with 
11,000 men and the terrible battle of Antietam, so much only can be 
considered as may illustrate Lee's character as a general. 

It is a remarkable fact, always to be remembered, that, counting the 
seven days before Richmond as one, Lee fought three great pitched battles 
between June 2 and September 18, 1862, all within about ten weeks from 
the day when, for the first time in his life, he found himself in control 
of a great army, numbering about 80,000 men, for in Mexico General 
Scott never had over 12,000 soldiers — a record surpassed by no com- 
mander unless it be Napoleon in his first Italian campaign. 

The battle of Antietam was, taking the numbers engaged, the most 
bloody and stubbornly contested of his whole career. An extraordinary 
accident had brought the army of Northern Virginia into a position of ex- 
ceeding peril. A copy of an order of surpassing importance had fallen 
into the hands of General McClellan, an order completely mapping out 
Lee's plan for the capture of Harper's Ferry, and then for a concentration 
'of his entire force behind Antietam creek; McClellan at once pushed on 
to overwhelm the Confederates before that concentration could be effected. 
When the battle opened, Lee had but four out of eight divisions in line; 
three others arrived at very critical points in the nick of time. Lee had 
about 40,000 as opposed to something over 80,000 men. But he never 
lost his coolness or self-possession; he shifted his regiments back and 
forth, across the field to the point where they were needed most, using 
to the utmost every gun and every man, while McClellan allowed the 



216 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

battle to close long before dark, with 20,000 men in his army, not one of 
whom ever fired a shot. Lee had, it is true, the very flower of the army 
of Northern Virginia. 

At Gettysburg, Lee's good luck deserted him, his battle tactics broke 
down at almost every point because he could not get his plans executed as 
he designed them. General Lee had a terrible time after the battle of 
Gettysburg in preventing his officers from rushing at each other's throats. 
Why is it that we have no official report from General George E. Pickett 
concerning his celebrated charge on Cemetery Hill? He knew better than 
any one that the disaster was due to the fact that General Lee's clear and 
explicit orders to certain generals to give Pickett prompt and vigorous 
assistance and support were never carried out. So General Pickett wrote 
a very salty report in which, in plain words, he laid the blame exactly 
where the blame was due, and sent it to the commander-in-chief. General 
Lee sent back that report with the following letter: "General G. E. 
Pickett, etc. You and your men have covered yourselves with glory, but 
we have the enemy to fight and must be careful, at this critical moment, 
to guard against dissensions which the reflections in your report would 
create. I will, therefore, suggest that you destroy both copy and original, 
substituting one confined to casualties merely." Pickett did as he was 
bid, and a glorious controversy was nipped in the bud. 

In the Wilderness campaign. May 4 to June 12, 1864, Lee, for the 
first time, encountered a great soldier, with 62,000 against 120,000 men. 
True, he fought in his own country upon interior lines, but his opponent, 
with an army greatly superior in numbers and all kinds of war material, 
had the incalculable advantage of immense resources from which to make 
good his losses, while Lee, compelled to husband his strength to the utmost, 
was no longer able to resort to those brilliant counter-strokes which had 
proved so successful in 1862-63. 

As it was Lee's superb defensive campaign from the Rapidan to the 
James, the fearful losses which he inflicted upon that gallant army of the 
Potomac would have been fatal had that army been commanded by any 
man on the Federal side other than General Grant. The great German 
captain. Von Moltke, always commanded an army greatly superior in 
the numbers, discipline and ability of its officers and men; he never 
encountered even a second-rate soldier, and he was never tried in the hard 
school of adversity. While Lee in this campaign, outnumbered two to 
one, with rapidly dwindling resources and an exhausted country, all but 
overwhelmed by trials and difficulties, turned into failure and nothingness 
all the mighty and bloody efforts which his adversary could make against 
him. The time when Grant crossed the James river was a period of 
great depression in the Federal councils; Mr. Lincoln was more despondent 
than at any other part of the war, and delegation after delegation of 
"patriots and statesmen" were pouring into Washington to implore the 
President to remove Grant from his command. 

Time and space would fail us ere we could reach that memorable 
siege of Petersburg where, for ten long months, Lee held his adversary 
at bay and foiled every effort to surround his army or to break through 
his long and at last attenuated lines. Political consideration compelled 
him to hold the Petersburg lines long after his military instinct told him 
that they should have been abandoned. President Davis would not listen 
to his suggestions that Richmond must be evacuated. 

Lee has been criticised for his final operations in this campaign. But 



EDWARD W. C. HUMPHREY. 217 

the fact is, the end had come and none knew it better than he. The com- 
plete exhaustion of the South, the great disasters which had nearly wiped 
out the Confederate armies in the West, the swift and destructive march 
of Sherman's army northward through the Carolinas, made it impossible 
for Lee any longer to delay the inevitable catastrophe. Well has it been 
written concerning Lee's last campaigns in 1864-65: "As a specimen of 
the boldness, sagacity and skill with which a small army may be so 
handled as to cripple and baffle far larger and better appointed forces, this 
campaign will take high rank in history as will the veteran commander of 
the army of Northern Virginia among those who are recognized as masters 
of the art of war." 

Just before the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, Lee s:ave the 
most explicit and imperative orders that food and supplies for his army 
must be collected at Amelia C. H. This would enable him to move 
south to Danville, Va., where he hoped to make a junction with the 
remnant of the Western army under Joseph E, Johnston. Upon his 
arrival at Amelia C. H., he learned that his subordinates had entirely 
failed to obey his orders; perhaps because they could not. Lee sat silent, 
like a statue, for a long time on his horse, like a man suddenly turned 
from flesh into stone. Then he knew that all was over and, in the agony 
which passed over him as an overwhelming flood, he nerved himself for 
the last scene of the tragedy, when, a few days later, the curtain fell to 
rise no more at Appomattox. 

When the conflict was over and the Confederate soldiers had every- 
where laid down their arms, Lee rendered to the South and to the whole 
country a great public service. The whole land was seething with the 
hostility and anger engendered by a great civil war; on the Northern side 
inflamed almost to madness by the terrible assassination of President 
Lincoln; on the Southern side, the people, in the gloom of defeat, utter 
ruin staring them in the face, were recklessly sullen and defiant; gaunt 
famine and despair settled down upon every home and every heart, and 
thousands began to look for a refuge in other lands. 

General Lee not only set to his people a noble example, but he exerted 
to the full his tremendous influence to induce them, one and all, to 
accept the untoward results with unrepining loyalty, to bury strife, hatred 
and animosity, to remain in their own country and exert every effort to 
repair their ruined fortunes, and, above all, to restore each State to its 
place in the Federal Union, and in a spirit of true patriotism to return 
hi manhood, rectitude and honor to their allegiance to the auth'ority of 
the Federal Government. In a letter to General Beauregard, he said: "I 
think the South requires the aid of her sons now more than at any 
period of her history. As you ask my purpose, I will state that I have no 
thought of abandoning her, unless compelled to do so. After the sur- 
render of the Southern armies in April, the revolution in the opinions and 
feelings 'of the people seemed so complete, and the return of the Southern 
States into the Union of all the States so inevitable, that it became, in my 
opinion, the duty of every citizen, the contest being virtually ended, to 
cease opposition and place himself in a position to serve the country." 

This address may be well concluded with a description of General Lee 
at Appomattox, written by General George A. Forsythe, who there served 
on the staff of General Sheridan : 

"I took my first and last look at the great Confederate chieftain. This 
is what I saw : A finely formed man, about sixty years of age, well above 



218 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

the average height, with a clear, ruddy complexion, just then suflFused 
with a deep crimson flush, that rising from his neck, overspread his face 
and even slightly tinged his broad forehead, which, bronzed where it had 
been exposed to the weather, was clear and beautifully white where it had 
been shielded by his hat ; deep brown eyes, a firm and well-shaped Roman 
nose, abundant gray hair, silky and fine in its texture, with a full gray 
beard and moustache, neatly trimmed and not over long, but which, never- 
theless, almost completely concealed his mouth. A splendid uniform of 
Confederate gray that had evidently seen but little service, which was 
closely buttoned around him, and fitted him to perfection. An exquisitely 
mounted sword, attached to a gold-embroidered Russia leather belt, trailed 
loosely on the floor at his side, and in his right hand he carried a broad- 
brimmed, soft gray hat, encircled by a golden cord, while in his left hand 
he had a pair of buckskin gauntlets. Booted and spurred, still vigorous 
and erect, he stood bare-headed looking 'out of the open doorway, sad-faced 
and weary, a soldier and a gentleman, bearing himself in defeat with an 
all-unconscious dignity that sat well upon him." 

To these generous words of General Forsythe it should be added that 
at Appomattox both Grant and Lee, in their bearing and conduct, rose to 
the highest conception of what was fit and becoming, in view of the 
grandeur of that occasion ; both displayed the finest qualities of the soldier 
and the gentleman ; Grant in delicacy and magnanimity, Lee in dignity and 
composure. And in the years which followed. General Grant received 
every honor and reward which a great country could give; General Lee, 
in the deepest adversity and defeat, quietly dwelling among his people, 
from the mass of whom the calamities of war had swept away all but 
the land on which they stood, inculcating by precept and example the 
lessons of courage, endurance and self-control. 

"In the storm of the years that are fading, 
No braver battle was won." 

In cemeteries, great and small, all over our land, have been laid the 
m.en whose names and whose deeds in our Civil War will long be honored 
and remembered. But what shall be said of the mighty host of the 
unknown soldiers. Federal and Confederate, who are sleeping side by side 
on the battlefields of the South ? 

"By the flow of the inland river, 

Whence the fleets of iron have fled. 
Where the blades of the grave grass quiver, 

Asleep are the ranks of the dead; 
These in the robings of glory, 

Those in the gloom of defeat; 
All with the battle-blood gory. 

In the dusk of eternity meet. 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day; 
Under the laurel, the Blue; 

Under the willow, the Gray." 



RICHARD M. JOHNSON. 

[Richard Mentor Jolinson, United States Senator and Vice-President 
United States, was born at Bryant's Station, Ky., October 17, 1781; died in 
Frankfort, Ky., November 19, 1850; he was educated at the Transylvania Uni- 
versity, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced at Great Cross- 
ings, Ky., elected to the State Legislature in 1804, and in 1807 was sent to 
Congress as a Republican; he served in Congress from October 26, 1807, till 
March 3, 1819 ; he voted in favor of war with England, organized a battalion 
of three companies, and when consolidated with another, was made colonel 
of the regiment; in 1819 he was elected to the United States Senate, and 
served until March 3, 1829; elected Vice-President of the United States In 
1837 by the Senate; he was a member of the Kentucky Legislature at the time 
of his death.] 

A JUST COMPENSATION TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SENATE 
AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

A speech delivered in the House of Representatives Wednesday, Decem- 
4, 1816, in favor of "An act to change the mode of compensation to the mem- 
bers of the Senate and House of Representatives and the delegates from 
Territories," passed on the 19th of March, 1816, shall be, and the same is 
hereby repealed: Provided always. That nothing herein contained shall be 
construed to revive any act or acts or parts of acts repealed or suspended 
by the act hereby repealed. 

Mr. President: 

I have on all political occasions consulted my best judgment, and have 
always voted to promote the interest and support the honor and 
rights of those who had, by their suffrages, given me a place upon the 
floor of Congress. I believe I have expressed the sentiments of my con- 
stituents, and that my conduct has generally been approbated and sanc- 
tioned by them; that this coincidence of political views and confidence 
in my wishes for their happiness and prosperity has left me at liberty to 
pursue my own course of conduct. That, notwithstanding this state of 
things, I have always believed in the right of instruction, and, at any time 
during my political course, I should have considered myself both honored 
and bound by the will of my constituents; the nature of the trust implied 
a duty, on the part 'of the representative, that I will consult the happiness 
and carry into effect, as far as I know it, the will of those who elect me. 

That, notwithstanding the discontent that has manifested itself in many 
parts of the United States, and in my own district, I am left to take that 
course which honor and duty dictated, and that, so far as I can infer, the 
will of my constituents. Many considerations had entered into his mind 
in making a motion for a committee to inquire into the expediency of 
repealing the compensation law. One object was to gratify that portion of 
my constituents who were opposed to the measure. I say a portion of 
my constituents, because I well know that many, very many, of my 
political friends, are in favor of the measure, both as a mode and amount ; 
some were desirous that an experiment might be made, others disliked 
the mode, but do not object to the amount and many other minor differ- 
ences; but I well know that they will all either unite or acquiesce in a 



220 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

repeal of the statute ; that the public might be tranquilized ; that the great 
mass of inflammable matter which is afloat might be decomposed and ren- 
dered harmless; that hobby riders may be dismounted and popularity 
clap-traps put flat on the surface, for I never intended, if I could make 
any other shift, to ride the one or set the other. I claim the indulgence 
of the House to explain what I intend by my motion. I do not intend a 
repeal of a compensation bill which gave to members of Congress fifteen 
hundred dollars per session, whether extra or the great annual session, 
pointed out by the Federal Constitution, by which each member could 
draw as many fifteen hundred dollars as the sessions in which he served; 
no such bill can be found on the Journals of the House. I do not intend 
a repeal of that compensation bill which allowed members of Congress 
fifteen hundred dollars per annum whether present during the session or 
absent at home, or elsewhere, on their own business. Such compensation 
law can not be found on the statute book. I do not intend a repeal of 
that compensation law which had given to the members of Congress six 
dollars a day until its passage, and then the fifteen hundred dollars. I 
have nothing to do with such a measure, as no such measure had been 
sanctioned by Congress. I do not intend a repeal of that compensation 
law which violated the Constitution, for I have never given a vote upon 
any such measure, although I well know that a rejected amendment to 
the Constitution had been published as a part of that sacred instrument 
to induce a belief that avarice had driven Congress from a path of duty. 
I had nothing to do with these and other compensation bills, so-called, which 
existed only in the vision of the fancy, the colorings of party and the mis- 
representation of faction; and these misrepresentations, with other causes, 
had combined in a manner so powerful and so forcible to excite the jealousy 
of the people. Nothing less could have excited in such a degree their 
suspicion and displeasure against their representatives, inducing them, in 
many cases, to withdraw confidence, under every concession, and refusing 
explanations from public servants who had never deviated before. I 
intended by m^ motion to repeal a compensation law which gave members 
cf Congress a gross sum of fifteen hundred dollars for their services, pro- 
vided they discharged, with fidelity, every day of every session, the duties 
of representative, and not otherwise, whether one or more sessions during 
Congressional year, in lieu of the six dollars a day; a compensation law 
which placed them on an equality with the sergeant-at-arms, the door^ 
keeper, the assistant doorkeeper, the chief clerk and the engrossing clerk; 
and on a footing, in a pecuniary view, of half as much as we give to the 
clerk of the House; a compensation law which was supported and voted 
for by a majority of both Houses of Congress and signed by the President 
of the United States; a compensation law which was acknowledged by 
every member of the Senate and of the House to be just, if not politic, 
by taking the fifteen hundred dollars ; for I have been informed that every 
member, one from Virginia excepted, had taken the money, which was 
conclusive evidence that they did not consider it public robbery. And 
the honorable gentleman from Virginia did not refuse the money because 
he thought it unjust, for he advocated the measure; upon the principle 
only he could not embrace the present Congress. The worth of that 
member was well known to the House, and to those who had voted 
against the measure, and had received the compensation, he did not suppose 
the people of any district would have complained of any such member, 
who had only taken that which had been allowed other members by 



RICHARD M. JOHNSON. 221 

law. In justice to myself, to the House, and particularly to the nation, 
I conceived it to be my duty thus to distinguish the real from the fictitious 
compensation laws; for the age of reason had not passed away, and 
although there may have been a temporary sacrifice of worth and merit, 
it can not continue. Such has been the artificial and unnatural excitement 
against the compensation bill, that a particular friend of mine called upon 
his debtor to discharge a written obligation under bond and seal; upon 
presenting the note, the debtor demanded to know of his creditor, whether 
he was in favor of the compensation bill, and, upon being answered in 
the affirmative, payment was positively refused. This was not all. If a 
constable presented himself to the justices of the peace for preferment 
and promotion, he was called on^to know if he \^as in favor of the com- 
pensation bill. If the justice wanted to be sheriff, he could think of 
no better expedient than to denounce the compensation bill; and particularly 
those who offered as candidates to represent counties in the State Legis- 
latures, a denunciation of the compensation bill was made a "sine qua non." 
In fact, by these and other means, the poor compensation bill excited more 
discontent than the alien or sedition laws, the quasi war with France, the 
internal taxes of 1798, the embargo, the late war with Great Britain, the 
treaty of Ghent, or any one measure of the Government from its exist- 
ence. Such effects could not naturally result from the measure under con- 
sideration, but from the misrepresentations of designing men and from a 
misunderstanding of it by the virtuous, the faithful, the honest yeomanry 
of the country. This reminds me of another story that was told to me 
•of a young gentleman having made known to the father of a beautiful 
daughter his wish to visit the house on her account, who demanded of the 
young man as a preliminary whether he was in favor of the compensation 
bill ! This brings me to the most natural part of the inquiry — ^the amount 
of compensation. If we consider this subject in an abstract or positive 
point of view, we must take a variety of cir^cumstances into the calculation, 
and it may be difficult to say what is the precise sum that should be 
given. If a married man shall bring his family with him, he will incur 
an expense greater than to come alone. If a member should come alone 
to the city of Washington, he incurs less expense than if compelled to 
bring one servant, or an attendant, with him to aid him on the road and, 
when at the city, to take from him the trouble of a thousand calls which 
would break upon his time and render him, in a great measure, useless to 
his constituents; or by paying the same for extra attention at boarding 
houses. Or the amount of expense may depend upon a thousand other 
considerations — whether a member shall drink water alone, or whisky, or 
brandy, or Madeira, or champagne; or whether a member shall occupy a 
room alone, or whether he can find some kindred spirit to occupy a room 
together. But this part of the subject can not be reduced to anything like 
mathematical precision as to the amount of compensation. But this I 
have said, and this I now repeat, that for married or single, with servants, 
with horses or without horses, fifteen hundred dollars as a money-making 
scheme is a poor business, whether applied to the farmer, the mechanic, 
the lawyer, the doctor, or any other class of the community; such is the 
necessary expense and sacrifice in being a member. Nor is it my wish 
that it should be a money-making business. It is my wish to receive my 
compensation from the people whom I represent, and not from any other 
quarter. I despise prodigality, extravagance and luxury, and equally de- 
spise griping avarice; and in this as in all other cases of money, I would 



222 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

be governed by the principles of economy — fix no unnecessary burden 
on the people — but they must support their liberties and the Government 
of their choice by a moderate and rational system of necessary supplies. 
But, leaving this positive view of the subject, comparatively speaking, the 
compensation to members of Congress is inadequate and to equalize you 
must either level or reduce the salaries of most of the -officers of the 
Government, or you must add to the per diem which has been received 
by the members heretofore ; and I believe the people have not yet instructed 
the members of Congress to lessen the salaries of olficers fixed by the 
patriots of the country for twenty years and upwards; and the people 
must love liberty less, and money more, than at present, to take such a 
step; and when I tell you the salaries of some of the officers of the 
Government, from memory, by way of comparison, it is not to alarm you 
or to imply that there should be a diminution -or reduction, but to undeceive 
the people as to this monstrous law which gives to members of Congress 
fifteen hundred dollars. 

The per diem allowance originated from the necessity and convenience 
of members, who had daily calls upon them; and the salary officer was 
made such from convenience in the payment quarter-yearly or semi- 
annually. It is impossible to make any distinction. I believe a gross sum 
will reform the proceedings of the House; and, although the people may 
change their representatives every Congress, the case will not be altered; 
they will not in the aggregate find men more enlightened, more patriotic, 
more industrious, or less avaricious; and it is always best to blend self- 
interest and patriotism together, if it can be done, and the most beneficial 
results, in my humble opinion, were discovered from its operation at the 
last session. In the executive, or judiciary, or military, or naval depart- 
ments, in case of sickness or absence on furlough, no deduction is made 
from the pay of the officer. If they languish on a bed of sickness, under 
their own roof and surrounded by their friends, the act of God does not 
lessen their claims upon their country for support; but if a member of 
Congress should be placed in the same position, he receives no part of 
his fifteen hundred dollars and, if detained after the session terminates, 
he receives no additional compensation. He must perform the service to 
entitle him to the money. The Roman diadem was put up to the highest 
bidder, and history gives us the consequence ; and if making money or saving 
money be the object of the people, there is no district in the United States 
so poor but could furnish some character to serve for nothing and, if 
required, would give to the public treasury the fifteen hundred dollars for 
a seat in Congress; but then we should have a very diiTerent Congress 
from that which is now so much identified with the honor and rights of 
the nation. The rich aristocracy of the country, who could roll in its 
carriages, or the profligate, who would wish to push themselves in the 
market, would generally compose a Congress under such an organization. 

Vigilance is a virtue in a free people; it was this virtue which preserved 
us from parliamentary encroachments in 1776 and conducted us to inde- 
pendence. Like Argus, the people should be watchful — ^they should not 
slumber upon their posts. But at the same time we should guard against 
precipitancy and unfounded suspicion, for these are the opposites of 
vigilance. It was these that threatened our cause in times that tried men's 
souls; when the Father of his Country, the immortal Washin,gton, was 
distrusted of wanting the capacity of a general or commander-in-chief, in 
pursuing a Fabian policy, particularly his memorable retreat through the 



RICHARD M. JOHNSON. 223 

Jerseys, that saved his shattered army, and has crowned him with so 
much glory. Unlimited confidence is a weakness, "but unfounded suspicion 
and distrust of a faithful public servant is a political, if not a moral, evil. 
In this case, no man has been charged with having changed his politics; 
the Federal members are Federal still, and the Republican members are 
Republican still. It is to be regretted that it did not produce a change in 
that respect, and it has been for the better. I do not make use of party 
names to excite party feeling, nor do I intend to drop an expression that can 
wound the feelings of any, whether voting for or against the bill. Odious 
as this measure was supposed-to be, some were not satisfied with magnify- 
ing every feature into a Gorgon's head; but, what was the unkindest cut 
of all, it was represented that, while we were providing for ourselves, we 
had neglected to provide for the widow, the orphan, the wounded soldier, 
the discharge of the national debt, the volunteer who had lost his arms 
or his horse in the public service, and other claimants; that we had been 
loading the people with heavy taxes when the session was taken up in 
reducing and repealing the taxes. Whatever may be the opinion of others, 
I will hazard the assertion that no Congress, since the peace of 1783, has 
greater claims upon the confidence of the people; and by their acts they 
will be judged. Has the volunteer lost his only horse, this Congress has 
made provision to pay him; has the faithful soldier arrearages of pay due 
him, the last session made ample appropriations; does the wounded, 
bleeding invalid present himself as indigent and unable to procure his living 
by his labor, he is placed upon the pension list; has the widow lost her 
husband at the plains of the Raisin or elsewhere, while in the service of 
the United States, the balm of consolation is administered to the bleeding 
heart in the five years' half pay; and, if particular cases should be omitted, 
we are bound to pursue the example we have set ourselves; and if in 
any case we have made inadequate provision, the power is in our hands. 



JAMES PROCTOR KNOTT. 

[James Proctor Knott, Lawyer, former Governor, Lebanon, Ky., was born 
in Washington (now Marion) County, Kentucky, August 29, 1830; educated 
at home; LL. D. Center College 1885; removed to Missouri, 1850; member 
Missouri Legislature, 1858; Attorney General Missouri, 1859-62; returned 
to Kentucky, April, 1862; practiced law; member of Congress 1867-83; Gov- 
ernor of Kentucky, 1883-87; Delegate to Kentucky Constitutional Convention, 
1891; Professor Civics and Economics Center College, 1892-94; Professor of 
Law ajid Dean of Law Faculty, 1894 to date.] 

THE GLORIES OF DULUTH. 

A speech delivered in the United States House of Representatives, Jan- 
uary 27, 1871, on the St. Croix and Bayfield Railroad Bill. 

Mr. Speaker: 

If I could be actuated by any conceivable inducement to betray the 
sacred trust reposed in me by those whose generous confidence I am in- 
debted for the honor of a seat on this floor; if I could be influenced by 
any possible consideration to become instrumental in giving away, in 
violation of their known wishes, any portion of their interest in the public 
domain for the mere promotion of any railroad enterprise whatever, I 
should certainly feel a strong inclination to give this measure my most earn- 
est and hearty support, for I am assured that its success would materially 
enhance the pecuniary prosperity of some of the most valued friends I 
have on earth — friends for whose accommodation I would be willing to 
make almost any sacrifice not involving personal honor or my fidelity as 
the trustee of an express trust. And that fact of itself would be sufficient 
to countervail almost any objection I might entertain to the passage of this 
bill, not inspired by an imperative and inexorable sense of public duty. 

But, independent of the seductive influences of private friendship, to 
v/hich I admit I am, perhaps, as susceptible as any of the gentlemen I see 
around me, the intrinsic merits of the measure itself are of such an 
extraordinary character as to commend it most strongly to the favorable 
consideration of every member of this House — myself not excepted — 
notwithstanding my constituents, in whose behalf alone I am acting here, 
would not be benefited by its passage one particle more than they would 
be by a project to cultivate an orange grove on the bleakest summit of 
Greenland's icy mountains. 

Now, sir, as to those great trunk lines of railway, spanning the con- 
tinent from ocean to ocean, I confess my mind has never been fully made 
up. But with regard to the transcendent merits of the gigantic enterprise 
contemplated in this bill, I never entertained a shadow of doubt. 

Years ago, when I first heard there was somewhere in the vast "terra 
incognita," somewhere in the bleak regions of the great Northwest, a 
stream of water known to the nomadic inhabitants of the neighborhood 
as the river St. Croix, I became satisfied that the construction of a railroad 
from that raging torrent to some point in the civilized worid was essential 
to the happiness and prosperity of the American people, if not absolutely 
indispensable to the perpetuity of republican institutions on this continent. 



JAMES PROCTOR KNOTT. 22« 

I felt instinctively that the boundless resources of that prolific region of 
sand and pine shrubbery would never be fully developed without a railroad 
constructed and equipped at the expense of the Government — and, per- 
haps, not then. I had an abiding presentiment that some day or other the 
people of this whole country, irrespective of party affiliations, regardless 
of sectional prejudices, and "without distinction of race, color, or previous 
condition of servitude," would rise in their majesty and demand an outlet 
for the enormous agricultural productions of those vast and fertile pine 
barrens, drained in the rainy, season by the surging waters of the turbid 
St. Croix. 

These impressions, derived simply and solely from the "eternal fitness 
of things," were not only strengthened by the interesting and eloquent 
debate on this bill, to which I listened with so much pleasure the other 
day, but intensified, if possible, as I read over this morning the lively 
colloquy which took place on that occasion, as I find it reported in last 
Friday's "Globe." I will ask the indulgence 'of the House while I read 
a few short passages, which are sufficient, in my judgment, to place the 
merits of the great enterprise contemplated in the measure now under 
discussion beyond all possible controversy. 

The honorable gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Wilson), who, I believe, 
is managing this bill, in speaking of the character of the country through 
which this railroad is to pass, says this: 

"We want to have the timber brought to us as cheaply as possible. 
Now, if you tie up the lands in this way so that no title can be obtained 
to them (for no settler will go on these lands, for he can not make a 
living) , you deprive us of the benefit of that timber." 

Now, sir, I would not have it by any means inferred from this that 
the gentleman from Minnesota would insinuate that the people out in his 
section desire this timber merely for the purpose of fencing up their farms 
so that their stock may not wander oflf and die of starvation among the 
bleak hills of the St. Croix. I read it .for no such purpose, sir, and make 
no comment on it myself. In corroboration of this statement of the 
gentleman from Minnesota, I find this testimony given by the honorable 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Washburn). Speaking of these same 
lands, he says: 

"Under the bill as amended by my friend from Minnesota, nine-tenths 
of the land is open to actual settlers at ^2.5o per acre; the remaining one- 
tenth is pine-timbered land that is not fit for settlement, and never will 
be settled upon; but the timber will be cut off. I admit that it is the 
most valuable portion of the grant, for most of the grant is not valuable. 
It is quite valueless; and if you put in this amendment of the gentleman 
from Indiana, you may as well just kill the bill, for no man and no company 
will take the grant and build the road." 

I simply pause here to ask some gentleman better versed in the science 
of mathematics than I am to tell me if the timbered lands are in fact the 
most valuable portion 'of that section of the country, and they would 
be entirely valueless without the timber that is on them, what the remainder 
of the land is worth which has no timber on it at all. 

But, further on, I find most entertaining and instructive interchange 
cf views between the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Rogers), the gentle- 
man from Wisconsin (Mr. Washburn), and the gentleman from Maine 
(Mr. Peters), upon the subject of pine lands generally, and I desire to call 
your attention to only one more statement, which I think will be sufficient 

14 



2ia KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

to settle the question. It is one made by the gentleman from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Paine), who says: 

"These lands will be abandoned for the present. It may be that 
at some remote period there will spring up in that region a new kind of 
agriculture which will cause a demand for these particular lands, and they 
may then come into use and be valuable for agricultural purposes. But I 
know, and I can not help thinking, that my friend from Indiana understands 
that, for the present and for many years to come, these pine lands can 
have no possible value other than that arising from the pine timber which 
stands on them." •• 

Now, sir, who, after listening to this emphatic and unequivocal testi- 
mony of these intelligent, competent and able-bodied witnesses, who that 
is not as incredulous as St. Thomas himself, will doubt for a moment that 
the Goshen of America is to be found in the sandy valleys and upon the 
pine-clad hills of the St. Croix? Who will have the hardihood to rise in 
his seat on this floor and assert that, excepting the pine bushes, the entire 
region would not produce vegetation enough in ten years to fatten a grass- 
hopper? Where is the patriot who is willing that his country shall incur 
the peril of remaining another day without the amplest railroad connection 
with such an inexhaustible mine of agricultural wealth? Who will answer 
for the consequences of abandoning a great and warlike people, in pos- 
session of a country like that, to brood over the indifference and neglect 
of their Government? How long would it be before they would take to 
studying the Declaration of Independence and hatching out the damnable 
heresy Df secession? How long before the grim demon of civil discord 
would rear again his horrid head in our midst, "gnash loud his iron fangs 
and shake his crest of bristling bayonets" ? 

Then, sir, think of the long and painful process of reconstruction that 
must follow, with its concomitant amendments to the Constitution, the 
seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth articles. The sixteenth, it is of 
course understood, is to be appropriated to those blushing damsels who 
are, day after day, beseeching us to let them vote, hold office, drink cock- 
tails, ride a-straddle, and do everything else the men do. But, above all, 
sir, let me implore you to reflect for a single moment on the deplorable 
condition of Dur country in case of foreign war, with all ports blockaded, 
all our cities in a state of siege, the gaunt spectre of famine brooding like 
hungry vulture over our starving land; our commissary stores all ex- 
hausted and our famishing armies withering away in the field, a helpless 
prey to the insatiate demon of hunger; our navy rotting in the docks for 
want of provisions for our gallant seamen, and we without any railroad 
communications whatever with the prolific pine thickets of the St. Croix! 

I could never understand before why there was so much excitement 
during the last Congress over the acquisition of Alta Vela. I could never 
understand why it was that some of our ablest statesmen and most disin- 
terested patriots should entertain such dark forebodings of the untold 
calamities that were to befall our beloved country unless we should take 
immediate possession of that desirable island. But I see now that they 
were laboring under the mistaken impression that the Government would 
need the guano to manure the public lands on the St. Croix. 

Now, sir, I repeat, I have been satisfied for years that if there was any 
portion of the inhabited globe absolutely in a suffering condition for want 
of a railroad, it was these teeming pine barrens of the St. Croix. At 
what particular point on that noble stream sucl^ a road should be com- 



J AME 8 PROCTOR KNOTT. 227 

menced, I knew was immaterial, and so it seems to have been considered 
by the draftsmen of this bill. It might be up at the spring or down at the 
foot log, or the water-gate, or the fish-dam, or anywhere along the bank, 
no matter where. But in what direction it should run, or where it should 
terminate, were always to my mind questions of painful perplexity. I 
could conceive of no place on ''God's green earth" in such straitened cir- 
cumstances for railroad facilities as to be likely to desire or willing to accept 
such a connection. I knew that neither Bayfield nor Superior City would 
have it, for they both indignantly spurned the munificence of the Govern- 
ment when coupled with such ignominious conditions, and let this very 
same land grant die on their hands years and years ago rather than submit 
to the degradation oi a direct communication by the railroad with the 
piny woods of the St. Croix ; and I knew that what the enterprising inhabi- 
tants of those giant young cities would refuse to take would have few 
charms for others, whatever their necessities or cupidity might be. 

Hence, as I said, sir, I was utterly at loss to determine where the 
terminus of this great and indispensable road should be, until I accidentally 
overheard some gentleman the other day mention the name of "Duluth." 
Duluth ! The word fell upon my ear with peculiar and indescribable charm, 
like the gentle murmur of a low fountain stealing forth in the midst of 
roses, or the soft, sweet accents of an angel's whisper in the bright, joyous 
dream of sleeping innocence. Duluth! 'Twas the name for which my 
SDul had panted for years, as the hart panteth for the water brooks. 
But where was Duluth? Never, in all my limited reading, had my vision 
been gladdened by seeing the celestial word in print. And I felt a pro- 
founder humiliation in my ignorance that its dulcet syllables had never 
before ravished my delighted ear. I was certain the draftsman of this 
bill had never heard of it, or it would have been designated as one of 
the termini of this road. I asked my friends about it, but they knew 
nothing of it. I rushed to the library and examined all the maps I could 
find. I discovered in one of them a delicate, hair-like line, diverging from 
the Mississippi near a place marked Prescott, which I suppose was intended 
to represent the river St. Croix, but I could nowhere find Duluth. 

Nevertheless, I was confident it existed somewhere, and that its dis- 
covery would constitute the crowning glory of the present century, if 
not of all modem times. I knew it was bound to exist in the very nature 
of things; that the symmetry and perfection of our planetary system would 
be incomplete without it ; that the elements of material nature would long 
since have resolved themselves back into original chaos if there had been 
such a hiatus in creation as would have resulted from leaving out Duluth. 
In fact, sir, I was overwhelmed with the conviction that Duluth not only 
existed somewhere, but that, wherever it was^ it was a great and glorious 
place. I am convinced that the greatest calamity that ever befell the 
benighted nations of the ancient world was in their having passed away 
v/ithout a knowledge of that actual existence of Duluth; that the golden 
orchard of the Hesperides was but a poetical synonym for the beer gardens 
in the vicinity of Duluth. I knew if the immortal spirit of Homer could 
look down from another heaven than that created by his own celestial 
genius upon the long line of pilgrims from every nation of the earth to 
the gushing fountain of poesy opened by the touch of his magic wand; 
if he could be permitted to behold the vast assemblages of grand and 
glorious productions of the lyric art called into being by his own inspired 
strains, he would weep tears of bitter anguish that, instead of lavishing 



228 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

all the stores of his mighty genius upon the fall of llion, it had not been 
his more blessed lot to crystallize in deathless song the rising glories of 
Duluth. Yet, sir, had it not been for this map, kindly furnished me by 
the Legislature of Minnesota, I might have gone down to my obscure and 
humble grave in an agony of despair, because I could nowhere find 
Duluth. Had such been my melancholy fate, I have no doubt that, with 
the last feeble pulsation of my breaking heart, with the last faint exhala- 
tion of my fleeting breath, I should have whispered : "Where is Duluth ?" 

But, thanks to the beneficence of that band of ministering angels who 
have their bright abodes in their far-off capital of Minnesota, just as the 
agony of my anxiety was about to culminate in the frenzy of despair, this 
blessed map was placed in my hands, and, as I unfolded it, a resplendent 
scene of ineffable glory opened before me, such as I imagine burst upon 
the enraptured vision of the wandering peri through the opening of 
Paradise. There, there, for the first time, my enchanted eye rested upon 
the ravishing word, "Duluth." 

I find by reference to this map that Duluth is situated somewhere 
near the western end of Lake Superior, but as there is no dot or other 
mark indicating its exact location, I am unable to say whether it is actually 
confined to any particular spot, or whether "it is just lying around there 
loose." I really can not tell whether it is one of those ethereal creations 
of intellectual frost-work, more intangible than the rose-tinted clouds of 
a summer sunset; one of those airy exhalations of the speculator's brain, 
which I am told are flitting in the form of towns and cities along those 
lines of railroads, built with Government subsidies, luring the unwary 
settler as the mirage of the desert lures the famishing traveler on, and 
ever one, until it fades away in the darkening horizon; or whether it is 
a real, bona fide, substantial city, all "staked 'off," with the lots marked 
with their owners' names, like that proud commercial metropolis recently 
discovered on the desirable shores of San Domingo. But, however that 
may be, I am satisfied Duluth is there, or thereabouts, for I see it stated 
here on the map that it is exactly thirty-nine hundred and ninety miles 
from Liverpool, though I have no doubt, for the sake of convenience, it 
will be moved back ten miles, so as to make the distance an even four 
thousand. 

As to the commercial resources of Duluth, sir, they are simply illimit- 
able and inexhaustible, as is shown by this map. I see it stated here 
that there is a vast scope of territory, embracing an area of over two 
millions square miles, rich in every element of material wealth and com- 
mercial prosperity, all tributary to Duluth. Look at it, sir! (pointing to 
the map). Here are inexhaustible mines of gold; immeasurable veins of 
silver; impenetrable depths of boundless forest; vast coal measures; wide 
extended plains of richest pasturage — all, all embraced in the vast territory 
which must, in the very nature of things, empty the untold treasures of its 
commerce into the lap of Duluth. 

Look at it, sir! (again pointing to the map). Do not you see from 
these broad, brown lines drawn around this immense territory that the 
enterprising inhabitants of Duluth intend some day to inclose it all in one 
vast corral, so that its commerce will be bound to go there whether it 
would or not? And here, sir, (still pointing to the map) I find within a 
convenient distance the Piegan Indians which,, of all the many accessories 
to the glory of Duluth, I consider by far the most inestimable. For, sir, 
I have been told that when the smallpox breaks out among the women and 



JAME8 PROCTOR KNOTT. 229 

children of that famous tribe, as it sometimes does, they afford the finest 
subjects in the world for the strategical experiments of any enterprising 
military hero who desires to improve himself in the noble art of war, 
especially for any valiant lieutenant-general whose 

"Trenchant blade, Toledo trusty. 
For want of fighting has grown rusty. 
And eats into itself for lack 
Of somebody to hew and hack." 

Sir, the great conflict now raging in the Old World has presented a 
phenomenon in military science unprecedented in the annals of mankind — 
a phenomenon that has reversed all traditions of the past as it has disap- 
pointed all the expectations of the present. A great warlike people, re- 
nowned alike for their skill and valor, have been swept away before the 
triumphant advance of an inferior foe, like autumn stubble before a hurri- 
cane of fire. For aught I know, the next flash of electric fire that shimmers 
along the ocean cable may tell us that Paris, with every fiber quivering 
with the agony of impotent despair, writhes beneath the conquering heel 
of her loathed invader. Ere another moon shall wax and wane, the 
brightest star in the galaxy of nations may fall from the zenith of her 
glory never to rise again ; ere the modest violets of early spring shall open 
their beauteous eyes, the genius of civilization may chant the wailing requiem 
of the proudest nationality the worid has ever seen, as she scattered her 
withered and tear-moistened lilies o'er the bloody tomb of butchered 
France. But, sir, I wish to ask if you honestly and candidly believe that 
the Dutch would have overrun the French in that kind of style if General 
Sheridan had not gone over there and told King William and Von Moltke 
how he managed to whip the Piegan Indians. 

And here, sir, recurring to this map, I find in the immediate vicinity 
of the Piegans *'vast herds of buffalo" and "immense fields of rich wheat 
lands." The idea of there being these immense wheat fields in the very 
heart of the wilderness, hundreds and hundreds of miles beyond the utmost 
verge of civilization, may appear to some gentlemen as rather incongruous, 
as rather too great a strain on the "blankets" of veracity. The phenomenon 
is easily accounted for. It is evident, sir, that the Piegans sowed that 
wheat there and plowed it with buffalo bulls. Now, sir, this fortunate 
combination of buffaloes and Piegans, considering their relative positions 
to each other and to Duluth, as they are arranged on this map, satisfies me 
that Duluth is destined to be the beef market of the world. 

Here, you will observe (pointing to the map), are the buffaloes, directly 
between the Piegans and Duluth; and here, right on the road to Duluth, 
are the Creeks. Now, sir, when the buffaloes are sufficiently fat from 
grazing on these immense wheat fields, you see it will be the easiest thing 
in the world for the Piegans to drive them down, stay all night with 
their friends, the Creeks, and go into Duluth in the morning. I think I 
see them now, sir, a vast herd of buffaloes, with their heads down, their 
eyes glaring, their nostrils dilated, their tongues out and their tails curled 
over their backs, tearing along towards Duluth, with about a thousand 
Piegans, on their grass-bellied ponies, yelling at their heels! On they 
come, and, as they sweep past, the Creeks join in the chase, and away 
they go, yelling, bellowing, ripping and tearing along, amid clouds of dust, 
until the last buffalo is safely penned in the stockyards of Duluth! Sir, 



230 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

I might stand here for hours and hours and expatiate with rapture upon 
the gorgeous prospects of Duluth as depicted upon this map. 

Human life is too short and the time of this House far too valuable 
to allow me to linger longer on this delightful theme. I think every 
gentleman on this floor is as well satisfied as I am that Duluth is destined 
to become a commercial metropolis of the universe, and that this road 
should be built at once. I am fully persuaded that no patriotic repre- 
sentative of the American people, who has a proper appreciation of the 
associated glories of Duluth and the St. Croix, will hesitate a moment 
to say that every able-bodied female in the land, between the ages of 
eighteen and forty-five, who is in favor of "woman's rights," should be 
drafted and set to work upon this great work without delay. Nevertheless, 
sir, it grieves my soul to be compelled to say that I can not vote for the 
grant of lands provided for in this bill. 

Ah ! sir, you Have no conception of the poignancy of my anguish that 
I am deprived of that blessed privilege ! There are two insuperable obstacles 
in the way. 

In the first place, my constituents for whom I am acting here, have 
no more interest in this road than they have in the great question of 
culinary taste now perhaps agitating the public mind of Dominica, as to 
whether the illustrious commissioners who recently left this Capitol for 
that free and enlightened republic would be better fricasseed, boiled or 
roasted, and, in the second place, these lands which I am asked to give 
away, alas, are not mine to bestow! My relation to them is simply that 
of trustee to an express trust. And shall I ever betray that trust ? Never, 
sir! Rather perish Duluth! Perish the paragon of cities! Rather let the 
freezing cyclones of the Northwest bury it forever beneath the eddying 
sands of the raging St. Croix ! 



WILLIAM LINDSAY. 

fWilliam Lindsay, Jurist, United States Senator, was born in Rock- 
bridge County, Virginia, September 4, 1835; he received an education in the 
schools of his native place, and in 1854 removed to Hickman County, Ken- 
tucky, where he taught, studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1858; 
in the Civil War, as Lieutenant and Captain in the 22d Tennessee Infantry 
Confederate Army ; he served as staff officer with Generals Buford and Lyons ; 
remained with the 2d Kentucky Brigade until paroled at Columbus, Mis- 
sissippi, in 1865; elected to the State Senate in 1867; in 1370 elected Supreme 
Court Judge of the State, and in 1876 became Chief Justice; United States 
Senator 1893-97; at the present time practicing law in New York City.] 

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF KENTUCKY. 

A speech delivered at the laying of the corner stone of the new Capitol 
at Frankfort, Kentucky, July ]I6, 1906. 

I can not express in words my gratification at meeting the audience I see 
before me, nor the pleasure I feel in having this opportunity to join with 
Kentuckians in the celebration of the interesting event for which this day 
has been set apart. 

The erection of the edifice or temple in which those representing the 
power, dignity and honor of a free American Commonwealth are to exer- 
cise their functions marks, as it ought to mark, an epoch in the history of 
such a State. 

To have been selected by those charged with the duty of directing the 
ceremonies of the day to make the principal address is a compliment I can 
not claim to deserve and for which I am not able sufficiently, and therefore 
shall not attempt to express my appreciation or in words to return my 
thanks. 

Less than one hundred and sixty years ago, no white man had erected 
his dwelling within the confines of the territory now constituting the State 
of Kentucky. A little over one hundred and thirty years since, the first 
permanent settlement of white men and women was made in that territory. 
Since that settlement, a great Commonwealth has taken its place in the 
galaxy of American States. 

That Commonwealth, possibly, equals to-day in population, wealth 
and power, the population, wealth and power of the thirteen American 
States combined at the time their independence was achieved. 

A brief reference to the events attending our progress will not be deemed 
inappropriate. In 1734, the colony of Virginia established the county of 
Orange, which embraced within its limits all the lands now constituting 
the State of Kentucky. Four years later came the county of Augusta, 
then Botetourt, then Fincastle and finally, on the 7th of December, 1776, 
Kentucky became an organized subdivision of the State of Virginia. 

More than a year in advance of the organization of that county, the 
attempt was made to establish the colony of Transylvania, and a little 
more than a month after the battle of Lexington the first legislative body 
assembled to make laws for the government of the pioneers of those early 
days. 

The want of lawful authority in that body and the illegality of its 



282 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

action must be conceded, but such names as those of Boone, Calloway, 
Slaughter, Harrod, Todd and Floyd gave it respectability and entitled it 
to the historic importance it has always received. The town of Boones- 
borough, in which that legislative body assembled in May, 1775, may, at 
least by courtesy, be spoken of as the first capital city of our State. 
June 1, 1792, Kentucky became an independent State and a member of 
the Federal Union. Its first Legislature met at Lexington and, through 
the action of that body, the seat of government for the new State was 
located at Frankfort, where it has since remained, and where the good 
people of the Commonwealth have now wisely determined it shall per- 
manently remain. 

In this city the events making up or contributing to the history of 
our State, to its greatness and to its glory, have had their origin or their 
inspiration. In this city the popular will has, from time to time, been 
crystallized into the statutes that prescribe our duties and provide for the 
preservation and protection of our rights. Here our Governors, from 
Shelby to Beckham, have had their homes and here they have seen to 
the due execution of our laws. Here our court of last resort has always 
held its sessions, and through its labors has brought into existence a system 
of jurisprudence of which Kentuckians are and have the right to be proud, 
and which justly and properly ranks the equal of the system of any other 
American State or of any country in which the principles of the common 
law prevail. 

In this city we have buried our dead, whether statesmen, law-makers, 
judges or soldiers. No one who has served the State or added to its glory 
or renown in any of the walks of life has been denied a resting place 
in our beautiful city of the dead. 

Looking across the river, our eyes rest upon the monuments a grateful 
people have erected in memory of those whose name and fame go to 
make up our history and our tradition. In this city sleeps 

"The brave old pioneer, 
Old Druid of the West." 

He rests beside his good old spouse, 

"An empire is his sepulcher, 
His epitaph is fame." 

Around and about him sleep the companions of his trials and his 
dangers. With him rest those who lived for the good of mankind and 
died in the service of their State. Those who fell in the Indian War^ 
or in our wars with Great Britain or with Mexico. The statesman, the 
soldier and the citizen, the humble and the exalted, all rest together, and 
to each and all of them, in the language of the poet, we may say: 

"Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight. 

Nor time's remorseless doom, 
Shall dim one ray of holy light. 
That gilds your glorious tomb." 

With those whom death has made immortal sleeps the poet whose 
lines 1 have quoted, of whom it has been happily said, that, in giving 
utterance to his great song, "he became at once the builder of his own 
monument, and the writer of his own epitaph." 

The spot on which we lay the corner-stone to-day for our new capitol 
building is fortunate in that its location unfolds a prospect that will keep 
in mind the memory of those of our great and good who have gone before 
and inspire those whom the people shall in the future select as the occu- 



WILLIAM LINDSAY. 283 

pants of this building with the desire to emulate the conduct of the men 
who, since 1775, converted an unbroken wilderness into a great State, now 
filled with happy homes and inhabited by a race of men and women who, 
in respect to all the qualities that elevate and ennoble, have been seldom 
equaled and in no period of time or history excelled. 

It is a gratifying reflection that the man under whose leadership the 
great Northwest was won and held till the treaty of peace was negotiated 
with the parent country was a representative Kentuckian and that the 
greater part of the men who followed him to victory either then were 
or afterward became members of the Kentucky community. 

It is also gratifying to be able to say that in all the wars in which our 
country has been compelled to engage, since our Commonwealth has 
existed, our people have in no instance failed to perform the full measure 
of their duties and obligations. 

The first two years of the last war with Great Britain were charac- 
terized by a series of American disasters. Our armies accomplished nothing 
in the East and seemed unable to cope successfully with the British and 
their Indian allies in Michigan and in Northern Ohio. In the summer of 
1813, the American commander, General Harrison, called on the Governor 
of Kentucky for assistance. That Governor issued his proclamation on 
the 13th of July. He called for 2,000 men, and double that number 
responded. As it has been well said, they came "from the great valleys 
where the Cumberland and the Tennessee pour their waters into the Ohio, 
from the hills which overshadow the Green and the Barren, from the 
mountains that feed the rippling Rockcastle, from the headwaters of the 
Cumberland, from the picturesque land where the Kentucky cuts its deep 
way through the limestone rocks and finds for its waters an outlet in the 
bosom of the Ohio, from the places which feed the Licking and the 
Big Sandy." 

.At the head of the army thus raised marched Shelby, the Governor 
of the State, and on Canadian soil, at the river Thames, was won our first 
important victory on land which turned the tide of defeat and disaster 
into that of success. At New Orleans, in Mexico, in fact, wherever Ken- 
tuckians have been called on to face a foe, their valor has been the theme 
of universal admiration. 

If we have not progressed with the rapidity of some of our sister 
States, we have kept pace with that conservative progress which is an 
instinct and a characteristic of a race that does not regard mere material pros- 
perity as the chief end of man. Abnormal wealth may be fraught with 
greater dangers to the ultimate prosperity of a State than can be the 
honest poverty of the citizen, no matter how universally that poverty may 
prevail. In our favored Commonwealth, reasonable prosperity and sub- 
stantial comfort constitute the rule. 

Recent developments in the financial world have directed attention to 
the methods of organized wealth and confidence in institutions once sup- 
posed to be free from guile, and in the personal integrity of the managers 
of such institutions, has been sadly shaken. Contemplating this fact, we 
can not avoid the inquiry whether those who administer the aflfairs of the 
public are entitled to unshaken faith and confidence and whether Mr. 
Jefferson spoke advisedly when he said that: "In every government on 
earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and 
degeneracy, which cunning will discover and weakness insensibly open, 
cultivate and improve. Every government degenerates when trusted to 



234 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its 
only safe depositories." 

Our Governments, State and Federal, are not perfect. No human 
institutions are. They, however, represent the popular will, legally ex- 
pressed, and the average intelligence of those who framed and organized 
them. Those who, from ^ime to time, are set apart to act as our trustees 
and agents must respect that law and that average intelligence, and if any 
man who happens to hold a position of trust sets himself above that law 
and assumes to subordinate that average intelligence, or common sense of 
the people, to his own personal predilections, his conduct should excite 
alarm, rather than receive the indorsement and approval of those whose 
will he disregards and whose intelligence he treats with scorn and contempt. 

He who takes the law into his own hands thereby converts himself 
into a criminal. The mob is not always composed of those who have the 
highest respect for established institutions, or are the best friends to peace 
and good order. Mobs occur in Kentucky, but rarely, and are always 
condemned by the better members of society. We may say the same 
thing of what we denominate "feuds." Their prevalence in the past has 
been the subject of profound regret to every Kentuckian who is proud of 
the good name of his State and laments 'occurrences that tend to discredit 
it. The disclosures recently made, and the daily revelations of the past 
week, in one of our unfortunate communities can not but awaken the 
people in every section of the State to the reproach they are compelled 
to bear, because a few men have assumed to become the avengers of their 
supposed wrongs and have gratified their feelings of personal enmity by 
imbruing their hands in the blood of their fellowman. To remedy this 
evil, no Kentuckian should hesitate to resort to every legitimate effort. 
Our erring fellow citizens must be made to comprehend and appreciate 
that sentiments of honor, that instincts of courage, that fealty to family 
and family associations do not require or excuse the shedding of blood, 
and that the man who, instead of taking up and becoming a party to 
his brother's quarrel, promotes a conciliation and re-establishes peace, is 
the better man, the better friend and the better citizen. 

He who endures instead of avenging a wrong, real or supposed, who 
acts on the principle that vengeance is not mine but the Lord's, and that 
the peace and happiness of communities depend on forbearance and can 
not exist where violence is the rule, is the representative of real courage 
and the type of the highest order of Kentucky citizenship. His is a species 
of bravery that no true man will question, and the character he makes will 
be handed down to coming generations as worthy of all commendation. 

In the great work of gradual and conservative, but persistent and untir- 
ing, reformation, there is no reason why Kentucky may not take the lead, 
and every reason why she shall. She came into existence as a State 
immediately after the adoption of the Federal Constitution ; she was settled 
by men and women and by the sons and daughters of those who shed 
their blood to secure our independence. Her children have left records of 
courage and heroism on almost every American battlefield. Her roll of 
statesmen and jurists, orators and soldiers, contains as many distinguished 
and imperishable names as can be found on that of any State. The 
devotion of her people to political freedom, to individual independence 
and to the maintenance of the rights of person and property is scarcely 
equaled and is nowhere surpassed. 

The time is now ripe and propitious for Kentuckians to forget the 



WILLIAM LINDSAY. 235 

past, so far as the history of the past is to be regretted, and in a spirit of 
love of country and love of their countrymen to bury their dead, and to 
join in making the history of the future an unbroken record of good 
feeling, of reverence for, and obedience to, law, an era of peace on earth 
and good will to men. 

The history of Kentucky and the history of the city of Frankfort can 
not be separated. All the statesmen, legislators and jurists who have 
reached eminent positions have performed some portion of the work 
entitling them to distinction within the confines of this city, and, since 

1793, the attention of the Kentucky people has been turned in this direc- 
tion, that they might not fail to be enlightened as to the record their 
trustees and agents were making, by the manner in which, and the purposes 
for which, they were discharging the duties of their positions of trust and 
confidence. 

The history of Frankfort and that of the capitol buildings of the State 
have been still more intimately associated and more inseparably inter- 
woven. 

In June, 1792, Kentucky's first General Assembly convened in the 
city of Lexington in a two-story log building. On the 5th of November, 
1792, that assembly adjourned "to hold its next session in the house of 
Andrew Holmes, at Frankfort, on the Kentucky river." This second State 
house was afterwards converted into Love's tavern. It was standing as 
late as 1870 and was a unique specimen of the pioneer architecture of the 
eighteenth century. The first capitol building was occupied November 3, 

1794. It was destroyed by fire in 1813. The next building erected cost 
forty thousand dollars, more than one-half of which sum was raised by 
voluntary contributions. The sources of these contributions, and their 
respective amounts, afford interest, if they do not supply useful informa- 
tion, to the curious. Collins, in his history of Kentucky, tells us that the 
people of Henry county contributed thirteen dollars; that Louisville gave 
fifty dollars, and Lexington three hundred and fifty dollars; that Shelby 
contributed three hundred and thirty dollars, and Woodford five hundred 
and fifty dollars; that a citizen of Virginia gave one hundred dollars, and 
the contributions of the people of the city of Frankfort and that of the 
county of Franklin aggregated nineteen thousand, six hundred and seven 
dollars, or practically one-half the cost of the building. The structure was 
burned in 1824. The capitol building now in use was occupied by the 
General Assembly December 7, 1829, and was improved by the erection of 
the wing standing on the east side, in 1873. 

The movement to change the location of the capital of the State to 
some other place than Frankfort began in 1796. It was continued at 
almost ever session of the General Assembly and at the State Constitu- 
tional Conventions of 1849 and 1890. The contest lasted more than 
an hundred years. In opposition to this movement, Frankfort fought 
a good fight, and in the end proved successful. The comer-stone we lay 
to-day settles this prolonged controversy, and settles it forever. In this 
view, I may congratulate the people of the State, and especially the people 
of the city of Frankfort, and, with emphasis, the ladies of this city, whose 
fealty to their home has never faltered, and, in doing so, I do not forget 
that there is one not here to-day, for whom I feel authorized to speak, 
whose heart responds to the gratifying fact that Frankfort and Kentucky, 
their history and their traditions, are to remain united in the future as they 
have been in the past. 



THOMAS FRANCIS MARSHALL. 

[Thomas F. Marshall, Lawyer, Statesman, was born in Frankfort, Ken- 
tucky, June 7, 1801; died near Versailles, Kentucky, September 22, 1864; was 
educated by private tutors; studied law under John J. Crittenden, and be- 
gan practice at Versailles; he served in the Legislature from 1832 to 1836, 
and was conspicuous in its debates; in 1833 he removed to Louisville; was 
defeatted as an independent candidate for Congress; returned to Versailles 
in 1837; and again served in the Legislature in 1838-9; he was finally elected 
to Congress as a Whig, serving from May 31, 1841, till March 3, 1843; in 
1846 he raised a company of cavalry and served in Colonel Humphrey Marshall's 
regiment in the Mexican War; he was Presidential Elector in 1852; he de- 
voted the latter years of his life to the study of geology and history, and 
lectured through the Northern and Eastern States.] 

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RICHARD H. MENEFEE. 

An address delivered by Thomas F. Marshall before the Law Society of 
Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, April 12, 1841. 

Gentlemen of the Law Society: 

I am not here to recount in set phrase, and with that courtesy which 
the living always pay to the dead, the virtues, real or supposed, of one 
around whose fate youth and interesting private relations alone have cast 
a transient interest. I come not merely to acquit me of a duty to one 
whom I personally loved and admired, to weave a fading garland for his 
tomb, or scatter affection's incense over his ashes. Mine is a severer task, 
a more important duty. I stand here, gentlemen, as a member of a great 
Commonwealth, amid assembled thousands of her citizens, to mourn with 
them the blow, sudden and overwhelming, which has fallen upon the 
country. He about whose young brows there clustered most honor, he 
around whose name and character there gathered most of public hope, 
the flower of our Kentucky youth, "the rose and expectancy of the fair 
State," lies uprooted. He, who by the unaided strength of his own great 
mind, had spumed from his path each obstacle that impeded, and rolled 
back the clouds which darkened his morning march; who in his fresh 
youth had reached an eminence of fame and influence, which, to a soul 
less ardent, might have seemed to be the topmost pinnacle, but which 
to him was only a momentary resting place, whence, with an undazzled 
eye and elastic limb, he was preparing to spring still upward and nearer 
to the sun of glory which glowed above him, while the admiring crowd 
below were watching with intensest interest each movement of his towering 
step, each wave of his eagle wing. 

"Why sudden droops his crest? 
The shaft is sped, the arrow's in his breast." 

Death canonizes a great name and the seal of the sepulchre excludes 
from its slumbering tenant the breath of envy. I might fling the reins to 
fancy and indulge in the utmost latitude of panegyric without offense; the 
praises of the dead fret not the living. But I am not here on an ordinary 
occasion to pronounce a pompous eulogy in set terms of vague and genera? 



THOMAS FRANCIS MARSHALL, 287 

praise. You have directed me to draw the life and character, to delineate 
the very form and figure of the mind of one whose moral likeness you 
wish to inscribe in enduring and faithful colors upon your archives, not 
only as a memorial of one loved and lost, but as an example and model 
for the study and imitation of yourselves and successors. 

Richard H. Menefee, whose death clothed this immediate community 
with mourning, threw a shade over Kentucky and awakened the sympathies 
of the whole American public, was bom in Owingsville, Bath county, 
December 4, 1809. His father,. Richard Menefee, was an early emigrant 
from Virginia. He was a man by trade a potter, and exercised his calling 
for many years in Bath. Although of exceedingly limited education and 
originally of very humble fortune, the native strength of his mind and 
the love of information raised him to very respectable attainments in 
knowledge, while integrity of his character, no less than his sagacity, 
commanded the confidence as well as the respect of all who knew him. 
He was repeatedly elected to the Legislature of Kentucky, and served one 
term in the Senate. In 1809, Kentucky's great senator was fast drawing 
upon himself the gaze of men. The saffron tints of morning had already 
announced the coming of that orb which has since shone forth with such 
splendor in the eyes of the civilized world. The father of our Richard 
had at one time determined to call his son Henry Clay, and, indeed, the 
infant statesman and orator wore the name for the first two or three 
months of his existence. It was subsequently altered to Richard Hickman, 
from respect to a warm personal and family friend, but the boy was ap- 
prised of the proenomen of his infancy and, fired even in his childhood 
by the fame of his great countryman, breathed often to heaven his fervent 
orison, that he might one day equal the eloquence, the greatness and the 
reputation of Mr. Clay. That the love of glory was the master passion 
of his nature, and sooner or later some event or circumstance must have 
roused it into life and action, we can not doubt, and yet it may be that the 
simple circumstance we have cited may have marked out the path and de- 
termined the object of ambition. That it made a deep impression upon 
the childish imagination is a veritable and very interesting fact in his boyish 
biography. He was left by his father an orphan at about four years old, 
and an estate, never large, was almost entirely wrecked by mismanage- 
ment and that bane of widows and orphans, a law suit in which it had 
been involved. Richard's utmost inheritance 'of worldly goods did not 
exceed a few hundred dollars. He seems, till he was about twelve years 
of age, to have been indebted almost exclusively to his mother's instruction 
for his rudiments of knowledge he received. For her he cherished to his 
latest hour the fondest veneration. He was her champion in boyhood, 
for sorrow and misfortune fell fast upon her. It was in his mother's 
defense that the lion of his nature first broke out. Incidents might here 
be related exhibiting in rare perfection the depth of filial piety and daunt- 
less heroism in a boy of fifteen, but they involve circumstances and 
feelings too delicate for a stranger's touch. In proof of the strength and 
tenderness of his private aflfections, it may here be stated that, after he 
commenced the practice of law, though pressed by the claims of his own 
family, he devoted a portion of his own slender means to the support 
of a brother overwhelmed with personal misfortunes and an orphan sister, 
and continued it till his death. At twelve years of age, so far as I have 
been able to learn, he first entered a public school. Like steel from flinty 
the collision of other minds struck instant fire from his own. The first 



238 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

competition brought into full play the passion for distinction, which 
formed the master principle of his nature. His teacher was astonished at 
the intense application, surpassing progress and precocious genius of the 
boy. With this gentleman, whose name was Tompkins (it should be 
written in letters of gold) , he seems to have remained without interruption 
for two years, at which period his mother married a second time, and 
he was removed from school. Clouds and thick darkness gathered now 
over his fortunes and his darling hopes. At fourteen, he was summoned 
to attend at a tavern bar in Owingsville. But the omen of his first name 
still cheered him on, and the fire which had been kindled within him could 
not be extinguished. He compromised the matter at home and served 
at the bar or labored in the field during the summer for the privilege of 
school during the winter months. Even this did not last, for want of 
means (mark that, ye of more prosperous fortunes) ; for want of means 
to defray his tuition fees, this unconquerable boy exchanged the character 
of pupil for preceptor at fifteen years of age and taught what he hac! 
learned to others for hire during the winter months, that he might accumu- 
late a fund with which to prosecute his own education thereafter. He 
continued thus till about his sixteenth year, when, in consequence of 
unpleasant difficulties with his stepfather, he was taken to Mt. Sterling 
by Mr. Stockton, an intimate friend of his deceased father. From this 
time he seems to have been left to his own guidance and wrestled alone 
with fortune. Upon the division of the wreck of the paternal estate, a 
negro was assigned to Richard about the period of his removal from home. 
He sold that slave to his friend and with the proceeds, together with 
what he had earned as a preceptor, maintained himself at the public 
school in Mt. Sterling till his eighteenth year, when he entered Transyl- 
vania as an irregular junior. The rules of the college would have excluded 
him from the privilege of examination and debarred him even from a 
trial for the honors of his class. His intrepid genius, his intense applica- 
tion and the bold and extra collegiate range of his information had at- 
tracted the attention of the celebrated President Holley. Through his 
intercession and influence, the strict canon of the university was dispensed 
with in Richard's behalf; he was admitted to an examination with his 
class and bore away the palm. Upon his return to Mt. Sterling, his funds 
were exhausted and he again became a private tutor, while he prosecuted 
the study of law with Judge James Trimble. He persevered in his labors 
and his studies till the year 1830, when, upon the death of his friend 
Stockton, whose aflfairs required the superintendence of a lawyer, and to 
whom he held himself bound by a debt of §:ratitude, in his twenty-first year 
he obtained a license to practice, and undertook, as his first professional 
act, without charge, to settle and arrange the complicated and embarrassed 
affairs of his friend. 

In the spring of 1832, he received the appointment of Commonwealth's 
attorney and in August, before he had attained his twenty-third year, he 
was married to the eldest daughter of the late Matthew Jouett. It is not 
among the least interesting circumstances which concentrate in the union 
of these two orphans, that the dowerless daug:hter of Kentucky's most gifted 
artist should have found a tutor in her childhood every way adequate^ to 
form her taste and fashion her understanding, and that in the dawning 
graces of her first womanhood, reflecting back upon its source the light 
she had borrowed, should have drawn and fastened to her side as friend 
and protector through life Ihat same boy preceptor from whose precocious 



THOMAS FRANCIS MARSHALL. 239 

mind her own had drawn its nutriment and its strength. Jouett and 
Menef ee ! What a union of names, what a nucleus for the public hopes and 
sympathies to grow and cluster round, to cling and cleave to ! And they 
are united in the person of a boy, a glorious, beauteous boy, upon whose 
young brow and every feature is stamped the seal of his inheritance. I 
have seen this scion of a double stock, through whose veins is poured in 
blending currents the double tide of genius and of art. Bless thee, Jouett 
Menefee, and may heaven which has imparted the broad brow of the 
statesman orator along with the painter's ambrosial head and glowing eye, 
shield and preserve, thee, boy, from the misfortunes of thy house. 

Mr. Menefee continued the practice of law at Mt. Sterling, with extra- 
ordinary success in the various counties of that mountainous district, till 
August, 1836, when he was returned the member from Montgomery to 
the House of Representatives of Kentucky. It was the fortune of the 
speaker to-day to have served in the same body during that session, and 
it was at this period that he first saw and became acquainted with the 
illustrious subject of this discourse. The impression which Mr. Menefee 
then made was instantaneous and ineffaceable. He was in his twenty- 
seventh year, but the lightness of his hair, his delicate complexion and al- 
most beardless face, and a certain juvenile outline of person, made him 
look to a transient observer some years younger than he really was. He 
stood among his colleagues in legislation, almost an entire stranger. He 
was well aware, no man more so, of the importance of first impressions 
upon a body constituted as that of which he was a member. One would 
naturally have expected, from a person situated as he was, great anxiety, 
not unmixed with bashfuln ess and timidity in his debut. No such thing. 
He threw himself naturally and with apparent carelessness into debate for 
the first time upon a bill entirely private in character and not of the smallest 
interest to the House. It was upon a motion of his own to reverse a 
report, a report from the committee of courts of justice, upon a bill author- 
izing the sale of some infant's real estate, that he was first heard to speak. 
He attacked their report with so much vivacity and such remarkable ability, 
that they felt themselves compelled to make a regular and formal defense, 
which they did seriatim, and it is no reflection upon their talent to state 
now, what all felt then to be true, that their young antagonist was a match 
for the whole. After this first effort, trifling as it would seem the occasion, 
Mr. Menefee was no longer considered in the light of a promising young 
man. He did not climb gradually into favor and influence, but sprang at 
once, and with an elastic ease truly surprising, into the position not only 
of a debater of the highest order, but of a leading mind, whose ripened 
judgment and matured thought rendered his counsels as valuable as the 
eloquence in which they were conveyed was striking and delightful. He 
was a member of the committee of finance and reported and carried, in 
the face of the most violent opposition, what is usually termed the "equal- 
izing law," by which the ordinary revenue, without an increase of taxation, 
but by including new subjects, has gained upwards of thirtv thousand 
dollars per annum. Compelled, by the particular interest which I then 
represented (beins: the member from the city of Louisville), to be thrown 
in frequent collision with Mr. Menefee in the debates of the House, I had 
ample opportunity both to know and to feel his intense power as a dis- 
putant. In the course of the session, he was heard on every question of 
State policv and alwavs with attention, which showed how deep he was 
in the confidence of the House. But the master effort of his mind that 



240 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

winter was on the bill to repeal the law of 1833, prohibiting the importa- 
tion of slaves. Never yet have I heard or read among all the discussions 
to which that law has given rise an argument so masterly, so statesman-like, 
so triumphant, as that of Mr. Menefee. He neither lauded slavery as a 
blessing, nor dreamed with crazy philanthropists, or murderous incendiaries, 
of its sudden and violent extinction. He adhered to the law of 1833 as a 
means of checking the increase of an evil which could not now be pre- 
vented. It is a public misfortune and a drawback upon Mr. Menefee's 
fame, brilliant as it is, that his speeches in the Legislature of Kentucky were 
not preserved. He was capable of fervid invective, vehement declamation 
and scathing sarcasm, but strength, strength was the pervading quality, and 
there was argument even in his denunciation. Never was a man more en- 
tirely a master of himself than Mr. Menefee. His conversation corresponded 
with and deepened the impression made by his public speeches and a close 
examination of his whole appearance. He had all the quickness of pene- 
tration of a man of true genius, but without a spark of wildness or eccen- 
tricity. There was no dreamy idealism, no shadowy romance, no morbid 
sentimentalism about him. 

Mr. Menefee passed from the Legislature of Kentucky into the national 
councils, where he took his seat in the lower House of Congress at the call 
session of 1838. He is said to have exhibited during the canvas extraor- 
dinary powers of popular eloquence and an unequalled grace and facility 
in mingling with the great body of the people, demonstrating thereby the 
versatility of a mind whose strength alone I have been contemplating. The 
same destiny attended him in Congress which had marked his entrance upon 
State legislation. There were no gradations in his congressional history. 
He comprehended at once, as if by instinct, the new scene in which he was 
called to act, and no sooner did he appear, than he was recognized as a 
statesman and a leader. Some of the leading men of the political party 
of which he was opposed pronounced him the most extraordinary man of 
his age who had till then appeared in Congress. Never did a career more 
dazzlingly splendid open upon the eye of young ambition than burst upon 
Mr. Menefee. The presses teemed with his praise, the whole country was 
full of his name, yet did he wear his honors with the ease of a familiar 
dress. He trod the new and dizzy path with a steady eye and that same 
veteran step which was so eminently characteristic. He maintained his 
character undimmed, and his position unshaken, till the end of his term, 
and then this wonderful man imposed upon himself, his spirit and his 
ambition that iron control of which I have spoken, and voluntarily retired 
from a theater the most elevating and commandinsf upon which genius 
and ambition like his would engage in the gigantic strife for undying honor. 
At twenty-nine years of age, Mr. Menefee found himself upon a summit 
to which the dreams of youth and hope could scarce have aspired. In 
1837, an obscure young lawyer, scarce known beyond the precincts of his 
native highland district, in 1839 he stood forth on the worid's great 
theater in acknowledged greatness, the prediction of his first tutor realized, 
the prayer of his childhood granted. 

He was now, though steeped in poverty, in full possession of 
fame. He was known universally. Over his character there hung no 
doubt nor shadow. He had but to select his ground, to choose his theater. 
Of an integritv stainless as the untrodden snow, and without one vice to 
consume his time or warp his career, he was sure to devote himself to 
the interests of his clients. In the summer of 1839, he located himself in 



THOMAS FRANCIS MARSHALL. 241 

Lexington. There was no dreafy novitiate with him. He stepped into 
the forum armed at all points and business flowed iti upon him in a full, 
rich tide. Never did any man occupy such a position in Kentucky as 
did Mr. Menefee in the opening of his professional career in Lexington. 
The public sympathies rallied around to cheer and to support him in a 
manner utterly unknown in any other case. Each step of his pro'gress 
but deepened the interest and vindicated more triumphantly the opinion 
entertained of him. Men floclced in crowds to hear him speak, his counsel 
v/as sought and relied on and his services engaged, whenever it was prac- 
ticable, at points distant from the scene of his immediate operations. At 
a period of life when most men are just rising into business, he was 
steeped, actually overwhelmed, with the weightiest, most honorable and 
most profitable causes. The sun of prosperity broke upon him with a 
warmth and brilliancy entirely without example. All difficulties had 
vanished from before him. In the past he found nothing with which to 
upbraid himself. The rough road through which he had journeyed from 
childhood was marked throughout with trophies of his triumphant spirit. 
Fortune was absolutely within his grasp. He was the slave of honor, not 
the drudge of avarice. It was independence that he sought, independence 
for himself and nestlings. He had tasted the bjtter fruits of early poverty 
and, although he had triumphed, he would not doom his little ones to their 
father's struggles and sufferings. For one short year Mr. Menefee's delicate 
frame sustained the fiery energies of his mind. In the spring of 1840, in 
reply to a note from myself on professional business, he alluded to the 
decline of his health in a tone of sadness, not despondence — his was a souj 
that never desponded — which staick me as ominous and prophetic. Disease 
•had indeed fastened its fangs upon his body, its force was vain against 
nis mind. With rapidly declining health, he persevered in his business 
till, in September, in a case of vast magnitude^ in which Clay and Wickliffe 
were both employed against him, he put forth, for the last time, his im- 
mortal energies at the bar. Like the Hebrew giant, his last effort was the 
greatest. Oh, would to God that he had been or could have been induced 
to spare himself! But the occasion had come, and the ruling passion, 
strong in death, broke out in irresistible force to throw its radiance over 
his funeral pyre. He must have been conscious of an extraordinary fate 
and an extraordinary genius. He must have appeared to himself as he 
certainly did to all others — a man marked out from birth for great actions 
and the most splendid distinction. What had he not achieved ? His friends 
may challenge the history of this country for a parallel. There was an 
unsparing intensity in his mind, a concentration of the whole soul upon 
his pursuits, a haste, a rapidity, as though he feared the sun of life should 
go aown ere the goal assigned to his genius had been attained. Was he 
conscious (such a suspicion has sometimes flashed across me), could he 
have been conscious that the seeds of early death were implanted in his 
original constitution, and was it this which spurred his fiery soul to such 
gigantic and unpausing strfdes upon his road to greatness? Himself, at 
all events, he did not and he would not spare. This was his only crime; 
the generous martyr; for this alone can his country reproach him. Be that 
at it may, he dashed at the opportunity as new fledged eaglets dash at the 
sun. He did measure himself and, in that effort, pouring forth his genius 
and his life, reached the consummation of his wishes, the utmost point 
of his childhood's prayer. He was measured and found a match for one 
of whose thunders long have shaken the American Senate and who was 

15 



242 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

erst the monarch of the forum. Mr. Menefee sank gradually from Sep- 
tember. His waning life sank; not his spirit. When apprised at last that 
his hour had arrived, "Brief summons" was the reply, and he manned 
himself to die with dignity. His sense of duty, the energy and collected- 
ness of his nature and his cautious regard for others, were strikingly man- 
ifested by the last act of his life. He made his will, executed a mortgage 
to indemnify a friend who was responsible for him and, ere the sun had 
risen, his own had set forever. 

Thus perished, in the thirty-second year of his life, Richard H. Menefee, 
a man designed by nature and himself for inevitable greatness; a man of 
the rarest talents and of the most commanding character; a man whose 
moral qualities were as faultless as his intellectual constitution was vigorous 
and brilliant ; a man to whose advancing eminence there was no limit but 
the Constitution of his country, had not the energies of his mind proved 
too mighty for the material elements which enclosed them. 



THOMAS CLAY McCREERY. 

[Thomas Clay McCreery, former United States Senator, was born near 
Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1S17, died in Owensboro, Kentucky, July 10, 1890; 
studied law; Presidential Elector 1852; visitor to the United States Military 
Academy in 1858 and 1868; elected United States Senator to succeed James 
Guthrie (who resigned), serving from February 27, 1868, till March, 1871; 
again elected United States Senator and served from March 4, 1873, till 
March 3, 1879.] 

ARLINGTON SHOULD BE RESTORED TO THE LEES. 

A speech delivered in the United States Senate, on December 13, 1870, 
in behalf of the bill for the relief of Mrs. Robert E. Lee, which would have 
restored to her "Arlington Heights," the former beautiful home of the Lees. 

Mr. President: 

Presuming that the justice and courtesy of the gentlemen who compose 
this Senate will accord fifteen or twenty minutes to me, I shall proceed to 
submit the remarks which I intended to make yesterday. 

The mournful intelligence of the death of General Lee reached us at 
our homes in vacation. The melancholy tidings of the death of General 
Thomas and the accents of sorrow in which his surviving friends poured 
forth the national grief at his irreparable loss were still fresh in our 
recollection when we learned that yet another of the great actors in the 
drama through which we have passed had breathed his last. These great 
men were natives of Virginia. They were bom about the same time and 
when one of them had finished his career, a very brief period was allotted 
to the other. The God of Nature has stamped the brow of each with 
the seal of command and he had endowed them with faculties worthy of 
command. On the march and in the battle they had stood together. Com- 
mon toil and common danger had probably endeared them to each other, for 
they appear to have been superior to the petty rivalries which embitter the 
existence of inferior mortals. 

But when the South raised her standard and called upon her sons to 
rally in its defense, each man had to settle the momentous question for 
himself. The dignity and the strength of their understandings enabled 
them to survey the prospect and to realize all its terrible consequences. In 
their reflection they may have been perplexed by doubts and almost over- 
whelmed with anxieties, but their honest conclusions compelled their sepa- 
ration. Thomas resolved to follow the starry emblem of the Union, while 
Lee resolved to stand or fall by the State that had given him birth, with 
his kith and kin of the South. 

From the concurrent testimony of his most intimate acquaintances, we 
are led to believe that General Lee enjoyed a singular exemption from 
the faults and follies of other men. He was a stranger and an enemy to 
extravagance, to dissipation and to vice. The vanity and flattery which 
usually attend success could not seduce him from propriety, while his 
inflexible virtue could defy defeat. 

"But his faults and his follies, whatever they were. 
Be their memories dispersed like the winds of the air." 



244 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

General Lee was an American citizen and the American people will 
never relinquish the property which they hold in the name and the fame 
of the great Virginian. His modesty and sobriety, his spotless integrity, 
his virtue and his valor, will be held up for the admiration and the imitation 
of mankind as long as those exalted qualities shall have a friend upon earth. 

Parties and partisans should never fail to recogTiize the fact that in 
the ranks of the opposition hearts may beat as good and as pure as their 
own. Heresy in religious faith and treason in political action have been 
the cries whenever men were to be led by the million to the slaughter. 

When the sword is involked, the conqueror has little difficulty in 
appropriating to himself such titles as may correspond, on his estimation, 
with his own efforts for the church or the State, and he is equally as ready 
to brand his adversary as a heretic or a traitor. The sword has less capacity 
to understand and decide a cause upon its merits than any other tribunal 
that has ever been known among men. Spears and battle axes, cannon 
and rifle balls are the advocates that plead in this court, and tears and 
blood and fire and famine are the costs levied upon the litigants. The 
judgments of the sword have not always commanded that universal respect 
which might have been expected, coming from a court of such enlarged 
jurisdiction. The block from which the heads of Hampden and Sydney 
dropped and the cord that strangled Emmett could not consign their names 
to infamy. History has enrolled them among the patriots and martyrs who 
have died in defense of the sacred cause of right. 

War may be, for aught I know, one of the necessities of our being. 
Nature itself is averse to repose. The air that we breathe lashes itself into 
fury, and the tornado sweeps over land and sea, leaving desolation in its 
pathway. The sirocco-blast of the desert buries camel and rider in its 
course. The lightning leaps from the cloud and swift destruction follows 
its fiery track. The ground upon which we stand may be an upheaval, 
and the lofty mountain, with its rocks and shells^ may have risen from the 
bosom of the fathomless ocean. If the elements are thus liable to com- 
motion and convulsion, is it wonderful that man, the creature of passion 
and prejudice, of ambition, revenge and avarice, should sometimes find 
himself in open hostility with his brother? 

The right of secession and the power of coercion are matters that I do 
not propose to discuss here or anywhere else. I shall say nothing about 
the causes of the war. It is frequently the most difficult thing in the worid 
to assign the true cause of a war. The first great war of which we have 
any knowledge was fought about a young lady who had married against 
the wishes of her parents; and as there were many nations engaged, and 
a great city destroyed in the struggle, we may fairly conclude that she 
was a pioneer in that line of disobedience. Since that time, men have 
become more practical and wars are waged, as a general thing, for land 
or ready money, bonds or other securities, as the exigence of the case may 
require. Tamerlane and Bajazet seem to have fought to see who could 
whip, and curiosity on the same point may have contributed largely to 
bring about the conflict between France and Prussia. 

The civil strife in this country probably had as much cause and there 
may have been as many good reasons for it as for other wars. Whether 
the useless crimination and recrimination which preceded it were the causes 
or only the premonitory symptoms is more than I can pretend to determine. 
It came, and around its banners gathered as brave men as ever followed 



THOMAS CLAY McCREEBY . 245 

the Roman eagle. You joined hands with those among whom you were 
born, and General Lee did the same thing : 

"In Dixie's land he took his stand, 
And lived and died for Dixie." 

I shall notice his important services in Mexico. I shall not follow him 
in his campaign in West Virginia, nor shall I linger on the banks of the 
James or the Rapidan, at Freckericksburg or the Wilderness. It is possible 
that no man could have accomplished more with the means at his com- 
mand; it is probable that he could not have had an abler lieutenant than 
Jackson; and it is morally certain that he believed his cause to be just. 
But his battles and his sieges, his victories and defeats, were witnessed by 
some of you, and they are known and understood by you all. Many men 
have been successful in the conduct of military affairs. The Warwicks, the 
Marlboroughs and the Wellingtons of the Old World were successful, 
but who among them all had more genius and less ostentation than General 
Lee? Was he not a hero? Was he not a Christian? Was he not a 
gentleman ? 

On the field of Appomattox he drew up his forces for the last time, 
They were not marshaled for the fight. The drum did not call to arms, 
nor did the bugle sound the charge. Silently, slowly and calmly a single 
figure moves to the tent of General Grant and surrenders himself a prisoner 
of war. Who will describe his feelings as he looked upon the battle-scared 
veterans whose fidelity, unshaken by disaster, was still true, and who were 
now like children weeping for his fall ? Most gladly would he have grasped 
the hand of each soldier at parting; but it would have been the greatest 
trial of his life. The future of all was shrouded in gloom, and the lip 
would have faltered in uttering even the word ''Good-bye." If their homes 
were in ashes, his own door was closed upon him forever. He passed from 
their view in silence, but his boundless love manifested itself in the gentle 
tenderness of his "farewell address." 

Brilliant as had been the military career of General Lee, the closing 
scene of his life added renewed luster to his fame. Lexington is situated 
in a valley of surpassing loveliness; the mountains rise on either side like 
huge walls inclosing a beautiful garden. Here stood an institution of learn- 
ing which bore an illustrious name, endeared io him by ancestral associa- 
tion as well as by the ties of family connection. But what was a college 
without an endowment, without a faculty, without a student, and in a 
country where the ravages of war had left only scanty means of sub- 
sistence? The trustees most wisely tendered the position to General Lee, 
and he accepted it. 

The transition from the camp to the school room had been of rare 
occurrence, but General Lee was equally eminent in either situation. It 
was his ambition to elevate the standard of scholarship and to make Wash- 
ington College the seat of science and of art as well as of literature. He 
was not dismayed by the difficulties and embarrassments that surrounded 
him. His administrative ability, his zeal and his energy surmounted them 
all, and the creation of his genius rose majestic in its superstructure and 
firm and solid in its foundations. There it stands, the pride of Virginia! 
The son of "Light-Horse Harry," penniless as a beggar, had completed 
a monument to Washington! 

It is not a shaft or an obelisk, whose cold exterior forbids the touch and 



246 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

repels the glance of the beholder, but it is a monument replete with life 
and light and hope, radiant with intelligence, the home of the arts and the 
sciences, of music and of poetry, with a chapel and an altar dedicated to 
religion and to God. 

General Lee was taken suddenly and violently ill. The paroxysm, 
however, abated in a measure, and a gleam of hope relieved the apprehen- 
sions of his family and friends. But the disease, instead of being subdued, 
was only gathering strength for a final blow. It soon became apparent 
to all that his hour was come. He alone was unmoved by the information. 
He was indifferent to the issue of life or death. He had no expectations 
and no desires upon the subject. Here was perfect resignation. He had 
been a faithful soldier of the Cross, and if the order had issued from 
Headquarters he was ready to march over the border. 

The lamp of life burned low and dim ; the scenes of earth were closing 
around him; unconscious of the present, the shadowy past rose before 
his vision, and his very latest utterance expressed a wish to see a friend. 
Lee whispered: "Send for A. P. Hill." Under the same circumstances, 
Jackson had said: "Send A. P. Hill to the front." Armies occupied the 
last thoughts of Napoleon, and so it may have been with Lee and Jackson. 

General Lee has gone to the grave. He was buried by his own direction, 
without display. If there are those among us who derive comfort from 
casting aspersions upon his character, they will do so; but the South and 
North and the East and the West will remember Lee. 

The widowed partner of his bosom still lives, and in her behalf I implore 
your justice. I do not ask for anything else. She belongs to a race fond 
of bestowing charity, but poverty can not force them to accept it. She 
owns, but does not occupy, the homes of her fathers. Will you, senators, 
remove the bar which excludes her from Arlington? 



EDWARD J. McDERMOTT. 

[Edward J. McDermott, Lawyer, Louisville, Kentucky, was born in Louis- 
Tille, Kentucky, October 29, 1852; Member of Legislature 1880; Presidential 
Elector 1880; Chief Supervisor of Elections for Kentucky 1888; Member 
Kentucky Constitutional Convention 1890; Chairman of Charity Commission 
of Louisville 1891; made a Member of Commercial Club of Louisville 1892; 
President of Louisville Bar Association 1905.] 

COMMERCIAL AND POLITICAL PROBLEMS FROM A SOUTHERN 

STANDPOINT. 

A speech delivered at the annual banquet of the New York Board of 
Trade and Transportation in Delmonico's banquet-hall February 24, 1892, 
a few days after the New York Democratic State Convention, called "the 
snow-shoe convention," because held in winter. It was said that the unus- 
ually early date was selected by the followers of the Hon. David B. Hill, 
to check the growing enthusiasm for ex-President Cleveland in other States, 
by making it appear that the latter could not carry New York and hence 
could not win if nominated. The convention, in which Mr. Cleveland had 
no support, had instructed its delegates to vote as a unit for Mr. Hill. As 
there were Republican and Democratic members of the Board of Trade at 
the banquet, the speech could not be partisan, but it was, nevertheless, in- 
tended to be a plea for Mr. Cleveland, and for clear political platforms. 
On account of this speech Mr. McDermott, though not a delegate to the Dem- 
ocratic National Convention in Chicago in June, was invited by Mr. Cleve- 
land's private secretary, Mr. George F. Parker, to attend the meetings of 
the trusted friends of Mr. Cleveland, before and during the convention. Ha 
was nominated on the first ballot and later carried New York and was 
elected President. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : 

I highly value the honor conferred on me by the request to speak to 
this distinguished audience. Not often do you treat Kentucky's sons so 
kindly. Some who come to compete with you in making colossal fortunes 
return to us sadder and wiser men; some never return. Alas! they are 
squeezed to death by your ''bears" or gored to death by your "bulls." 
And yet "romancers" here say that we, the most guileless of men, are 
a dangerous set; that we never go forth from home unless armed with 
a corkscrew and a pistol. Grown to manhood "in these piping times of 
peace," I have often wondered at these stories, just as I marveled at the 
bloodthirsty Hotspur, who, if we may trust the description of Prince Hal, 
was accustomed to slaughter a goodly number of Scots every morning 
before breakfast, then to wash his hands and petulantly exclaim: "Fie 
upon this quiet life! I want work." "O, my sweet Harry," says his 
wife, "how many hast thou killed to-day?" "Give my roan horse a 
drench," says he, and answers, an hour later: "Some fourteen, a trifle, a 
trifle." 

In fact, sir, public opinion and the law have banished the duello from 
our borders. We joy most in the arts and triumphs of peace. Blessed 
with a climate more temperate in winter and summer than yours, with 
a richer soil and with priceless minerals, which few, if any. States can equal, 
we are cheerfully entering the race of progress in competition with all 
comers and with flattering conditions for success. In the past ten years, 
by the census, Kentucky has surpassed all the Southern States in an increase 
of wealth, and few States can show a larger gain. We have no State debt 
worth mentioning. With more cordiality than ever before, we are giving 



248 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

a friendly hand to men of thrift that come into our midst, and we are 
striving in every way to emulate you in your giant strides to wealth and 
power. 

In the life of every man, in the life of every nation, there comes a 
time when it is wise to pause from ordinary pursuits, ambitions and care, 
in order to take a calm view of the past, to carefully estimate the present, 
and to look soberly at the future. Especially to-day is it well for Americans 
to consider how far we have used the opportunities left us by the founders 
of the republic and in what degree we have failed in our duty. That we 
have done mighty things is not to be denied, but that we have not done 
as much as was expected is clear. Matthew Arnold, with much reason, 
says that we have here solved the political problem and the social problem, 
but that we have not solved the human problem; that, though we have 
been skillful in self-government and have broken down unjust and harmful 
barriers of caste, though we have made colossal fortunes and have increased 
enormously all the material comforts and luxuries of life, we have not made 
our government as pure as it should be and we have not made our lives 
as free from care and as full of sweetness and light as we ought. 

It is true that we have been sorely tried and much retarded by the 
development of a new country, by a civil war and by its inevitable con- 
comitants; that we have had much discord and bitterness and intemperate- 
ness in public affairs; but "the irrepressible conflict" has long been over 
and there is nothing now to hinder progress and culture or to prevent us 
from becoming pre-eminent as an enlightened, prosperous and homo-r 
geneous people. We are Americans all and free to provide for the present 
and the future without being swayed by the passions of the past. All that 
concerns us to-day is that, in that terrible war, the people of each side, 
North and South, fought valiantly, in good faith, for what they believed 
right; that, fortunately for all, the North won, and that Appomattox was 
the beginning of peace and prosperity rather than the end of bloodshed 
and ruin. In each recurring season, the golden grain will splendidly adorn 
the fields once blackened with fire or reddened with precious blood or the 
white cotton bolls will brighten them with the mantle of purity and peace, 
Nobody with sense can blame the elder Southern men for an irresistible 
sadness when they consicier the agonies and the devastation of the rebellion, 
the humiliation of their defeat and the uncertainty of the solution of the 
problem still presented by the presence of the negro and the Caucasian in 
the same land with equal civil rights, and yet with an impassable barrier 
to social equality between them. From social equality would inevitably 
spring intermixture, and that would be a calamity to our race, if not to 
theirs. God never intended this land to be peopled by a mongrel race 
brought forth by the mingling of alien bloods, kept separate by Nature from 
the beginning of time. This is not to be. The past has left us many 
unfortunate legacies, but not this. To the South, perhaps to the Southern 
people alone, the most important issue of the future may be the negro 
problem; but that problem is being surely, though slowly, settled. We 
must let that question alone for a while and turn our attention to the 
pressing needs that to-day concern the whole country. 

We are now about to enter upon a new contest for the Presidency. 
For the first time since the close of the war, there is no need of considering 
any of the problems that grew out of the war. No sentimental appeals to 
the passions of the past quarter of a century can avail much in this year. 
In the words of Achilles : 



EDWARD J. McDERMOTT. 249 

"Let us leave 
Those things among the things that were, and though 
They make us grieve, let us subdue our minds 
To what the time requires." 

When we quarreled with Italy because we could not or would not 
secure the conviction of the leaders of the New Orleans mob that had 
lynched several Italians accused, it is true, of murder, but acquitted by an 
unpunished jury of our own. countrymen; when we quarreled with the 
republic of Chili, then emerging from the fire and blood and frenzy of a 
civil war, because she could not or would not procure the speedy conviction 
of the mob that had attacked our sailors, when these grave troubles came, 
there was a perfect accord among all classes of our citizens, South as well 
as North, Georgia and Kentucky, as cheerfully as New York and Massa- 
chusetts, offered their volunteers. The universal sentiment was that, how- 
ever we might differ from our President and our Secretary of State as 
to the need of haste or severity or reparation in each case, they were our 
chosen representatives; our honor and our protection were properly in 
their keeping; they were worthy of our confidence, and, right or wrong, 
we should support them with our property and our lives. Perfect loyalty 
to our flag and a firm resolve that it should not be insulted with impunity 
appeared everywhere in the land. 

We can now safely close those old books of the Civil War and begin 
anew. We stand to-day on the threshold of a bright future. To go forward 
in the fulfillment of our destiny, without undue haste or delay, we must 
now solve the economic problems that confront us. By reason of youF 
important position in politics and in mercantile affairs — ^because we always 
look to you with respect and sometimes look to you for the final word 
in shaping the destiny of this whole land — we take a deep interest in your 
opinions and conduct, and we believe that you are not unwilling to hear 
from us what we think and how far we will follow your standard. In 
this spirit, with indifference and yet with candor, I speak the words upper- 
most in my mind and in the minds of thousands of your brethren in the 
South. 

For years we have been engaged in a discussion of the tariff and in 
experimental tests. Whatever our opinions may be of that great question, 
whether we are Democrats or Republicans, we should at least wish to have 
our policy settled while the people have a clear opinion and a deep interest 
in the subject. It should take, and no doubt will take, a foremost place 
in the political debates next fall. Of course, the trimmers on both sides 
dislike this prospect. Men who are only seeking the spoils of office care 
nothing for principles that do not improve their chances of success. To 
them success at any price, on any platform, with tinkling cymbals and 
sounding brass, is the one thing desired. In their eyes, Moses was a failure 
because he did not reach the promised land; but, to thoughtful men, he 
was splendidly triumphant. Now, if ever, is the time that the young men 
and the men of middle age, who took no part and could take no part 
in settling the great questions of slavery and union, must insist that hence- 
forth only great principles, and only men of convictions and of strength 
to maintain them, shall be considered — ^that platforms unequivocal, not 
meaningless and cowardly, shall be demanded of party leaders. Moses 
found his people in bondage. Obedient to duty, he led them through the 
Red Sea, through the desert; they murmured and conspired against him 
again and again. He gave them the la\y and, though they ofttimes forgot 



250 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

the true faith and made false idols and listened to complaisant, ambitious 
leaders, he chastened but forgave them. At last, because of their sins and 
of his too fond love for them, rather than because of his slight faults, he 
was denied the privilege of entering the promised land. When he had 
pointed out the way to them and taught them, who were in fear, the cour- 
age to push on to their goal, he went upon Nebo, the lonely mountain, 
and, far above their weaknesses and their comprehension, was taken into 
the bosom of God. Let us have temporary defeats, if necessary or best, 
but Heaven grant us always a leader like that and the grace to comprehend 
him. 

Not only must we settle the tariff in this coming struggle, we must 
determine whether we shall have a sound or a base currency. Fortunately 
this is not yet a party question, and I may here freely speak my mind. 
For my part, I have no fear of the solution of that problem when the 
people fully consider it. The old greenback cloud has now a silver lining, 
but in this field the sun of truth can not be long obscured. That cloud 
will soon be dissipated and leave not a rack behind. The Confederacy 
taught the South at least one good lesson; that it takes something more 
than a Government stamp to make money. There is no more reason for 
debasing our currency to enricli the silver miners of the West than there 
is for making ourselves a nation of drunkards to enrich the whisky dis- 
tillers of Kentucky. If the Government should be compelled to buy silver, 
it should be compelled to buy bourbon. Silver weights you down, while 
the mellow bourbon buoys you up, making you feel as if you were floating 
•on thin air, while "dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream 
before." I say nothing of the headache next morning — of what the German 
students call "die katzenjammer" — first, because I do not wish to put any 
disquieting handwriting on these walls or prophesy, while the flowing bowl 
is still circling in our midst, what is about to befall us in the morning — 
what dreams and thirst and curtain lectures may come on the gloomy 
morrow — and, secondly, because no man ever suffered so much from 
these things as a nation suffers from the intoxication of an inflated or 
debased currency. Gresham's rule that base money drives out good money 
is clear to all. When Massachusetts allowed taxes to be paid in cattle, 
the tax-gatherer received the worst cattle in the State. When we pay for 
foreign goods, we must pay in gold or its equivalent, and soon, if we have 
depreciated silver coin, our gold will have a premium and finally disappear. 
I know there are debtors who would like a debased currency to free them 
from one-third of what they owe; but let us not forget that the largest 
debtors in the land are not the humble and the needy, but the great mer- 
chants and the bold speculators, the mortgaged railroads, the insurance 
companies and the banks with big deposits, to say nothing of other corpora- 
tions and men "doing business on credit. While reducing the obligations 
of the rich at the expense of their creditors, we should bring misery upon 
the poor who can not borrow much. No Government can afford to teach 
repudiation to its people. If we are to wipe out debts, let us do it by 
a bankrupt act which will confer its benefits only on honest men in need, 
not on the shrewd who grow rich on borrowed capital or profitable credit. 

But important as these problems are, they are not more to be con- 
sidered than an evil tendency which now threatens to bring great harm 
upon this land. At the beginning of the republic, our greatest men were 
cur leaders and our Presidents. Trimmers and "available men," who are 
neither hot nor cold, were not able to scramble into high office for which 



EDWARD J. McDERMOTT. 261 

they were unfitted and on which they could bring - only disrepute. In 
England, where parliamentary government is carried to the highest point, 
the ablest leaders are easily discerned and are steadily put in command. 
Not so with us. When a man has no record or an unimportant record, 
he is ''available" for the most exalted office in the gift of the people. His 
weaknesses are concealed or palliated; his virtues are magnified beyond 
2 11 reasonable bounds. Whenever a man becomes really eminent, jealous 
rivals or envious pigmies assail and malign him. Nearly twenty-three 
hundred years ago, Socrates, in his defense before the unjust people that 
decreed his death, spoke this truth: *'It is not possible that any man 
should be safe who sincerely opposes either you or any other multitude 
and who prevents many unjust and illegal actions from being committed 
in the State." Sir, it is time for us to stop this degradation. It is time for 
us to honor men who have convictions and who, fearing neither a political 
party, nor the public, boldly proclaim them. 

A few evenings ago, one of the prominent men of the South — able, 
scholarly and upright, who, with passionate fidelity, had followed the for- 
tunes of the Confederacy — said to me that if a certain prominent candidate 
of his party were nominated, and if the party platform approved the silver 
heresy, he would, for the first time in his life, vote for the nominee of 
the opposite party whose principles and leaders he had always opposed. 
Several other influential men in his presence announced the same resolve. 
Whether we agree with them or not, conscientious men like them are the 
pillars of the republic. Vultures may hawk at them, demagogues and 
scribblers may ridicule or malign them, but thoughtful men know tha 
inestimable value of independence and conscience at the polls. 

Parties are useful, but they must be subordinated to right. They must 
be our ministers, not our masters. A nation of intelligent men can not 
make an idol of a machine they have themselves created and, falling down 
before it, allow it the power to control or crush them. I would not 
encourage captiousness or pharasaical self-righteousness, nor discourage 
reasonable party discipline, but I plead for rational independence of party 
managers when they strive, for their selfish aims, to enslave us or wrong 
our country. By their fruits ye shall know them — by their leaders, approve 
or condemn. Sallust said that "The desire of glory, power and prefer- 
ment is common to the worthy and the worthless, with this difference: 
The one pursues them by direct means; the other, being void of merit, has 
recourse to fraud and subtlety." He wisely said, too, that Rome had 
attained her eminence chiefly by "the great virtue of a few illustrious per- 
sons" whose deeds filled her sons with emulation and her foes with dread. 

The time now calls for men with courage and uprightness — for plat- 
forms clear and sound. The leader must be one 

"Who comprehends his trust, and to the same 
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim; 
And, therefore, does not stoop, nor lie in wait 
For wealth, or honor, or for worldly state." 

Nearly every Commonwealth in the Union now has a "favorite son" 
whom she wishes to raise above his just merits. The South, like the 
North, talks affectionately of her able, trustworthy men. We have often 
of late given you honored Speakers of the House, and the Speaker's power 
to shape legislation is, perhaps, greater than that of the President ; but we 
know that a Southern man can not yet win the Presidency, and "favorite 
sons" must not obscure our issues. Personal vanity must yield to public 



252 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

go'od. The next contest for the Presidency must be determined, in a dig- 
nified way, by great men on great principles. Whether the voter's favorite 
be the able and highly esteemed occupant of the White House now (Benja- 
min Harrison) or the brilliant Knight of Maine (James G. Blaine) ; whether 
the fortunate Hill or the pole-star of the Democratic hosts, the strong, 
upright and manly Cleveland — whoever that favorite may be, the voter 
now insists that his champion shall have a fair field and fair play, that real 
merit alone shall decide the issue; that the destinj of sixty-five millions 
of people shall not be surrendered to party needs or the vaulting ambition 
of any man. We want a leader like the sterling, conscientious Cato, rather 
than the genial, skillful, ambitious Caesar. 

Sir, the able men like you in trade and commerce have too long neg- 
lected their power in the State. I am a party man; my father and my 
grandfather voted for the party to which I give my allegiance, and yet 
I see with apprehension that we are fast being divided into two classes: 
(1) Those who follow their party, right or wrong, and (2) those who 
neglect every public duty. Bad laws or bad officers rob us of the fruits 
of our labor, lower the civilization of our country and menace the pros- 
perity and character of our children. As Cato conjured the Roman Senate, 
I conjure you who have valued your houses, your pictures and your 
statues more than the State. If you would retain them, if you would have 
leisure for your pleasures, arouse yourselves from your lethargy and have 
a care for the State. It is not simply a question of taxes; your character, 
your greatness and your liberty are in danger. No power, no politicians 
swayed by selfishness and greed, can stand against you. 

"Wouldst thou be free? The claims that gall thy breast 
With one strong effort burst, and be at rest." 

We, the men of the South, look to you with anxiety and yet with hope. 
We admire and we are often willing to follow your high-minded men. 
We glory in your greatness. This is the emporium of the Western hem- 
isphere and may yet be the emporium of the world. Into your harbor 
will come, more and more, the commerce of all the nations. You have 
the coign of vantage and you have intelligence, energy, integrity and 
wealth. You need only to make a noble use of your priceless gifts. If 
you will but rise to the call of your destiny, not only will your sails 
whiten every sea and your cargoes fill every mart, but your voice in our 
country will always be potent, your culture and your treasures of art wilt 
win the praise of all cultivated men and you will be the ''expectancy and 
rose" of the fairest State on earth. 

When Germany has lost her renown; when the glories of fair France 
have departed; when Macaulay's New Zealander has taken his stand on a 
broken arch of London bridge and sketched the ruins of St. Paul's, he may 
turn his face westward in search of splendors hitherto unseen by men, 
and here, towering into the vault of heaven, he may see something simple 
but grand. Behold the object of his admiration and delight: Liberty 
lighting the worid ! O radiant and lofty emblem of man's greatest blessing! 
Long mayst thou be a beacon light to us and to all nations! May thy 
beams penetrate into every benighted land and every slave stand erect, 
redeemed and happy, in the light of universal freedom ! 

Noble hearts and lofty minds, a constant love of pure character, of 
shining talents and of unselfish patriotism, will make us missionaries of 
liberty and the favorite people of God. 



JOHN WILLIAM McGARVEY. 

[John William McGarvej^ A. M., LL. D.. Educator, Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, March 1, 1829 ; graduate Bethany 
College, West Virginia 1850; preached twelve years at Fayette and Dover, 
Missouri; preacher at Lexington, Kentucky, 1863; since 1865 Professor of 
Sacred History, and since 1895 President of College of the Bible> Lex- 
ington, Kentucky (department of Kentucky University); connected with re- 
ligious newspapers as Correspondent and Editor for over forty years. Clergy- 
man Christian (Disciples) Church; Author of many books.] 

A NEGLECTED WITNESS. 
An address delivered in Lexington, Kentucky, March IS, 1906. 

Four Roman centurions are mentioned in the New Testament and all 
of them, unlike their superior officers, Herod, Pilate, Felix and Festus, were 
very noble men. The first mentioned was stationed with his command 
at Capernaum while Jesus was teaching and healing there. His favorite 
servant was suffering from a deadly disease, and he was anxious for 
Jesus to heal him, but felt himself unworthy to present his request in 
person; so he did it through the elders of the Jewish synagogue. The 
latter enforced it by saying: ''He is worthy that thou shouldst do this 
for him; for he loveth our nation, and himself built us our synago^gue." 
Here was a rare combination of humility, generosity and faith. 

The one best known of the four to modern readers is Cornelius, of 
Cesarea, of whom the historian attests that he was "3. devout man, who 
feared God with all his house, gave much alms to the people, and prayed 
to God always." It was doubtless this high character which led to his 
being the first Gentile to be admitted into the church. The last of the 
four in order of time was the centurion Julius who, under orders from' 
Festus, conveyed the Apostle Paul as a prisoner from Cesarea to Rome. 
The care with which he protected his prisoner, and the many courtesies 
which he extended to him, point unmistakably to a noble character. It 
was probably through his kindly commendation that Paul, on reaching 
Rome, was not thrust into the common prison, but was permitted to live, 
while awaiting trial before Caesar, in his own rented house under the 
guard of a single soldier. The fourth, and the one of whom I am to speak, 
is the one, strange to say, who superintended the crucifixion of Jesus. His 
name has passed into oblivion and only one brief sentence of all that ever 
fell from his lips is on record; yet we are justified in enrolling him with 
his three fellow soldiers as a very noble man, and also as an important, 
though a neglected, witness for flim whome he crucified. 

When Pilate finally consented to the crucifixion of Jesus, it was by 
the soldiers of this centurion's command that he was scourged and mocked 
and crowned with a crown of thorns. The centurion, having no reason 
to doubt that the sentence against Jesus was just, had knowledge of this 
procedure and permitted it. And when, under command of Pilate, he 
ordered out the detachment of soldiers who were to crucify Jesus and 
to stand guard about his cross, he had no ground for doubting the justice 
of the order. His natural respect for the court's decision and his intuitive 



264 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

desire to believe guilty the man whom he was about to execute precluded 
all such doubt. No hangman is willing to doubt the guilt of his victim. 
We have every reason, therefore, to believe that when the centurion or- 
dered his men into line, he was fully convinced that Jesus was a guilty man. 

The Jewish enemies of Jesus had clamored for His crucifixion with the 
double purpose of bringing His career to an end and by the method of its 
ending to stamp infamy upon His name. When they cried out, as he hung 
on the cross: "He saved others, himself he can not save," they meant 
that he had not in reality saved others, or he could and would save Himself. 
When they said: "Come down from the cross, and we will believe in 
The^," they meant that His death on the cross would demonstrate the 
falsity of His claims. When they said: "Let God now save Him if He 
would have Him, for He said He was the Son of God," they meant that 
God would not and could not fail to save His own Son. The centurion, 
standing at his post, heard all of these tantalizing arguments, and to his 
mJnd they must have appeared unanswerable. His victim did not save 
Himself and God did not come to His rescue as if He cared for Him. Yet 
in the face of all this evidence, and in spite of his hostile preconceptions, 
when the end was come, he exclaimed, while he trembled with fear: 
"Truly this was a righteous man ! Truly this was the Son of God !" What 
forced this conclusion upon him, and what indication of character is seen 
in its avowal ? 

We can find the answer to these questions if we suppose him to have 
been accosted by Caiaphas, the high priest : 

"I am told, sir, that you have pronounced the man whom you have 
just crucified a righteous man and the Son of God." 

"I have." 

"How do you dare to say this, when your own governor and superior 
officer gave sentence against Him, and your own hands have crucified 
Him?" 

"I have said it because I believe it." 

"Did you not hear the people while He hung on the cross crying out: 
*He saved others, Himself He can not save — come down from the cross, 
and we will believe in Thee ?' " 

"I heard it." 

"How, then, if He really had power to save others, can you account 
for His not saving Himself ?" 

"I can not account for it." 

"And did you not hear some of us cry out: *He trusted in God; let 
God now save Him if He would have Him, for He said He was the Son of 
God'?" 

"I heard that cry." 

"How, then, if He was the Son of God, as you say, can you account 
for the fact that God permitted His own Son to die on the cross ?" 

"I can not account for it." 

"Your arguments, Caiaphas, appear to me unanswerable and, were it 
not for other facts that you are disregarding, I should be compelled to agree 
with you. Hearken while I remind you of these facts." 

"As my command was marching toward Golgotha, a group of respect- 
able women followed that man, weeping as if their hearts were broken, 
and drawing as near to Him as my lines would permit. On hearing their 
cries, that man, with a look of tenderest compassion, as if forgetful of the 
cross He was bearing, turned His face toward them and said : 'Daughters 



JOHN WILLIAM McGARYEY. 255 

cf Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and your chil- 
dren.' Now, Caiaphas, that was not the speech of a criminal deserving 
to die on the cross. No such man, with a cross on his shoulder, ever 
uttered such words. My heart was touched and I ordered the soldiers 
nearest to Him to remove His cross to the shoulders of a stranger we met 
coming into the city. 

''When we reacher Golgotha, and the four soldiers whom I had de- 
tailed to crucify Jesus, after laying His cross on the ground and stretching 
Him upon it on His back, began to drive through the tendons of His 
hands and His feet the rugged spikes on which He was to hang, I saw Him 
direct His eyes toward heaven and exclaim, in a voice of deep sincerity: 
'Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.' Never, since the 
world began, Caiaphas, has a criminal worthy of death offered such a 
prayer for the men who were torturing Him. Never before did even an 
innocent man offer such a prayer under such torture. He was more than 
a righteous man, Caiaphas; He was the Son of God; and when He said: 
'Father,' He meant it. 

"Later, after we had crucified Him, a group of women and one young 
man were permitted to pass my lines and draw near to His cross. One 
of them was the noblest-looking woman I ever saw, and her features 
were like His. I soon discovered that she was His mother. While they 
stood before Him in grief too deep for words or for tears, I saw Him fix 
His eye on that woman and say: 'Mother, behold thy son,' and he 
turned His eyes toward that noble young man. Then to the young man 
He said, as he turned His eyes back to His mother: 'Son, behold thy 
mother.' I knew what He meant. I could not be mistaken. His love 
for that mother was such that, even in the agonies of crucifixion. He 
provided for her a future home and protector. I know criminals, Caiaphas; 
I know thoroughly the heartless wretches who die on the Roman cross, 
and I know that that man was not one of these. No such man as He 
was ever before crucified. 

"Still later, one of the robbers who had at first joined his companion 
in reviling Jesus, after a long silence, said to Him : 'Jesus, remember ma 
when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.' I do not know what was meant 
by His coming in His kingdom. That was a strange speech to address to a 
dying man, but it must have been something to which the robber looked 
forward after death. Neither could I see why a dying robber should 
wish to be remembered. He would naturally wish to be forgotten. But 
the dying Jesus answered him: 'Verily I say unto thee, this day thou 
Shalt be with Me in paradise.' I am not sure that I know what paradise 
is, but I know that the word is used by you Jews and the Persians for a 
place of pure delight, and I can not doubt that this is what Jesus meant 
by it. When He died, I feel certain that He went to that place, though 
it seems a strange thing that the robber went with Him. The other robber 
made no such appeal, and received no such promise. Now, Caiaphas, I 
can not believe that the man who made that promise was a blasphemer 
and a traitor. His words and His tone of voice were as far from those 
of such a character as the East is from the West. 

"Still later, Caiaphas, as you well know, the light of the sun went out 
at noonday and it was dark for three hours. We thought that the sun 
itself had perished; but it returned to its place just as the sufferings of 
Jesus were ended. It is impossible to doubt that this unheard-of omen 
was connected with the crucifixion of that man. It was the God of 



266 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

heaven showing His wrath at our cruelty toward His Son. Never before 
have I felt such fear as I felt then. The cowardly herd of your friends 
fled away into the city, beating their breasts, and I suspect that you were 
among them. Near the end of that darkness, the man Jesus cried out: 
'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ?' I thought for a moment 
that His God surely had forsaken Him, but soon He uttered another very 
loud cry, and then, with a tone of resignation. He said : 'Father, into Thy 
hands I commend My spirit,' and, as He said this. His head dropped upon 
His breast. I knew then that His God had not forsaken Him. And now, 
Caiaphas, I believe, and I may say I know, that He was a righteous man — 
that He was theSon of God." 

Thus we find that it was by the moral aspects of that dreadful scene 
of suflfering that the centurion's preconceptions against Jesus were over- 
come and that he was convinced, in spite of objections that he could not 
answer. It was evidence which only a candid and magnanimous soul 
could appreciate. And the open avowal of his belief in the presence of 
the odds that were against him is proof of that moral courage which 
belongs only to the noblest of men. 

Scarcely had the centurion made his confession of faith, when he re- 
ceived an order from Pilate to have the bones of the crucified men broken, 
and to take their bodies down. He repeats the order to his mien, but 
he observes that when, with heavy clubs, they had broken the legs of 
the robbers, they passed by those of Jesus. This was disobedience, but 
he utters not a word of rebuke. How could he rebuke the soldiers for 
not further mutilating the body of the Son of God ? 

In another moment, a messenger comes from the governor, attended 
by a venerable counsellor of the Jews and, with a salute to the centurion, 
he says: "The governor orders you to deliver the body of Jesus to this 
man." Already the soldiers had climbed to the top of the other crosses^ 
torn loose the hands of the robbers and let their nude bodies drop like 
dead hogs to the ground. So they might have done to the body of Jesus 
but for Pilate's timely intervention. The centurion looks on while Joseph^ 
of Arimathea and Nicodemus, another dignitary of the Jews who came 
for the same purpose, take down with tenderest care the body of Jesus, 
wash away the blood which stained it, wrap it in fine linen and costly 
spices, and gently bear it to a rock-hewn sepulchre near by. What does 
this mean? Have some of the Jewish elders, by whose clamor Pilate was 
persuaded to crucify this man, changed their minds concerning Him ? And 
has Pilate himself so changed as to permit this high honor to be paid to 
the man whom he had sentenced to death ? Are the enemies of Jesus begin- 
ning to agree with the centurion ? 

Here the curtain drops on the story of the centurion; but our interest 
in him forces us to follow him by a sane imagination a little further. 
When, a few days later, the preaching of the resurrection of Jesus and of 
His glorification at the right hand of God in. heaven, filled Jerusalem with 
alarm and discussion, is it possible to doubt the stand which he took? 
How could he now doubt the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus, when 
he had found even in His death overwhelming proof that He was the 
Son of God ? Did he and Caiaphas meet again ? If they did, I hear him 
say to Caiaphas: "On the day of the crucifixion of Jesus, you asked me 
two questions which I could not answer, but I can answer them now. You 
asked me, If Jesus had the power to save men, why he did not save Him- 
self from death on the cross? I can answer now that he suffered of His 



JOHN WILLIAM McGARVEY. 257 

own will that He might redeem the world from sin. You asked me why 
God permitted His own Son to suffer such a death. I answer now, be- 
cause it was necessary in order that He might be just in justifying sinners 
who believe in Jesus; and that includes you and me. I can not tell why 
this was necessary; that is a question for God to answer. If it satisfies 
Him, He has good reasons for it, and He is not bound to give them to 
you and me. Perhaps we could not understand them if He did. 

Did the centurion become a Christian? And was he finally saved? I 
can not doubt it; and if I shall be so happy as to stand some day in the 
radiant throng of the redeemed, I think I shall see him. I shall say to 
him: "And you are the man who superintended the crucifixion of my 
Saviour." He will answer: "I must confess that I am,; but I can say this 
for myself, I did it in ignorance and under the command of my military 
superior, and, when it was done, I was the only man in all that tumultuous 
throng who dared to speak a word in His favor. In His death, which 
shattered the faith and hope of all His disciples, I saw proof that He was 
the Son of God, and I alone of all men then alive declared Him to be 
what He was and is." Noble centurion ! 



16 



CHARLES MAYFIELD MEACHAM. 

[Charles Mayfield Meacham, Editor "Kentuckian" and Mayor of Hop- 
kinsville, Ky., was born in Christian County, Ky., June 14, 185S; former City 
Clerk; President Board of Commissioners Western Asylum; County Elec- 
tion Commissioner; President Kentucky Press Association 1893; Member 
Democratic State Executive Committee past nine years.] 

THE TOWN AND CITY. 

An after-dinner speech delivered at the Ninth Annual Powell Banquet, 
at Louisville, Ky., January 22, 1903. 

Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen: 

Your send-oflF makes me feel like that great Roman poet of whom 
Cicero said: "The fame that preceded him was only equaled by the 
applause that followed after him.'' 

I am here in response to an invitation to throw some light upon a 
question that must necessarily fail to interest many of the four hundred 
unfortunates exposed to the sound of my voice. I hope, however, that 
this delicate reference to the four hundred may not be taken as an infringe- 
ment upon the copyrighted privilege of your own most distinguished jour- 
nalist. 

It is possible that I may fail to hold you spellbound throughout the 
somewhat lengthy and labored argument I am about to make, because 
it must be admitted that statistics always appear formidable and uninter- 
esting. I did not choose this subject, and it is Dr. Powell's fault and not 
mine that this calamity has come upon you at so inopportune a time to 
destroy the pleasure of an otherwise auspicious occasion. 

I am to talk to you about "The Town and the City," and the informa- 
tion I shall give you will be based upon the population statistics of Census 
Bulletin No. 25. The broadsides of figures with which I am loaded may 
not throw you into paroxysms of mirth, but they may be relied upon as 
being authentic, instructive and as merry as Director Merriam could make 
them. 

You will observe that my subject is a double-barreled one. It is the 
first time I have ever found myself on both sides of a proposition. 

A few years ago, when I was a schoolboy, I was, as president 6f a 
debating society, called upon to settle many questions that had, up to that 
time, remained in doubt. Among these problems was one resolving that 
life in the country is filled with more pleasures than life in the city. Having 
been called to the presidency like Cincinnatus was called to rule Rome — 
fresh from the plow — I naturally leaned to the Reuben side of the question, 
and handed down a decision in favor of the country, upon the ground 
that it is better to be a big man in a small town than a small potato 
in a large city. But I am not here to-night to turn back the leaves of 
time and declare with Cowper that "God made the country, and man made 
the town." It is not permitted me to talk of pastoral scenes and bucolic 
pleasures. I am to impart inforrnation upon both the town and city. Just 
think of the magnitude of this subject! It covers the whole universe, 
excepting a few back precincts, and needs to be divided into many sections. 



CHARLES MAYFIELD MEACHAM. 269 

You must not wonder then if the speech I am to. spread over so much 
territory happens to be a little thin in spots. 

When my name was first mentioned in connection with this honor, 
about the only idea that suggested itself to me was the old saying that 
"The only thing greener than a country man in the city, is the city man 
in the country." Then it occurred to me that I could not, with a proper 
observance of proprieties, enter into a discussion of urban verdancy without 
seeming to be personal to most of my hearers. 

It pains me to see some indications of levity as I warm up to my subject. 
The bulletin I hold in my hand is a sure antidote for boisterous hilarity, 
and if you show signs of laughing the buttons off your clothes, I shall feel 
it my duty to read freely and apply the antidote. 

In order to condense my remarks into the brief hour and twenty minutes 
assigned me, I shall have to localize my subject and give you a lesson 
in geography. Bordered by five mighty Commonwealths on the north and 
east, and stretching southward to the historic battlefields of Tennessee, 
there is found upon the map of the United States a spot that is shaped 
like a country ham. The fat end rests upon the backbone of the Cumber- 
land mountains and the hock is dipped in the turbulent waters of the 
mighty Mississippi. That spot is Kentucky; that ham is my meat. 

Would that I could pause here to bestow a panegyric upon Kentucky, 
upon her cities, her towns, her fields of waving grain. There is no brighter 
star upon Old Glory than our beloved State, no dearer spot on earth than 
the *'01d Kentucky home." 

We are told that ancient Gaul was divided into three parts. Modem 
gall, like everything else, is controlled by a monopoly. The puzzle picture 
is to look in upon a city crowd like this and find who has it. Likewise 
Kentucky is divided into city, town and country. The city is the product 
of evolution. Primitive Kentucky was a vast hunting ground. Then came 
the fort, the village, the town and finally the city. 

There are in Kentucky three hundred and fifty-four cities and towns, 
divided into six classes. They range all the .way from Newfoundland, in 
Elliott county, with forty-two people, to Louisville, in Jefferson county^ 
with more than two hundred thousand. 

You will observe that there ar;e almost as many classes of cities as 
there are grades of post-prandial orators. 

The embryo city is called a town, but is classified as a city of the sixth 
class. When the town gets large enough to have a policeman with a 
uniform, a police judge and a lockup, it is promoted to the fifth class. 

After the town trustees become councilmen and one of the cops is 
made chief of police, and likes to be called captain, there is another promo- 
tion to the fourth class. 

By this time the city is beginning to feel its oats, if I may mix a little 
agricultural talk as I go along. A new census is taken every few months, 
and, after a while, the eight thousand limit is reached, and the city, with 
a glad cry, leaps into the third class. There are now new dignitaries, new 
responsibilities and a bigger bonded debt. 

The next step is to annex the villages and farm lands for several 
miles around and get up scandals over franchises. There is much talk 
about the rapid growth of the city and, after a long wait, there is a great 
day for the patient waiter. Some circus day the watchful assessor catches 
enough people in town to make it twenty thousand, and lo! there is an 
addition to the small circle of second class cities. 



260 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

Beyond this point hope struggles to keep ambition alive. The crowd 
in the next class is about the size the young man likes to find in the 
parlor when he calls on his best girl. The rush is over. There is plenty 
of room at the top. By some strange coincidence, the first class cities 
in Kentucky are just equal in number to the real first-class after-dinner 
speakers. There is but one of each. Louisville, with its old-fashioned 
buildings, its muddy streets and its Cabbage Patches, is the one and only 
first-class city in the State. Modesty forbids that I should further discuss 
the other branch of this subject. 

But because Louisville is the only city of her class in Kentucky, it is 
not necessary that there should be an exhibition of that pride that goeth 
before a fall. It is true that your city is located on the ham I have 
mentioned, just where the largest slice is cut, where the juiciest meat is 
found, a luscious morsel of lean bordered all round with fat. It is true 
that you have drawn upon the country towns from time to time for 
preachers, for editors and for business men, until you have supplied yourself 
with a double share of brains and energy. It is true that you have out- 
grown all other towns in the State, but you have not yet passed beyond the 
stage where the lone highwayman can rob a train in your midst. 

A hundred years ago, you had but three hundred and fifty-nine inhab- 
itants, and from that beginning your beautiful city has been evolved. It 
is difficult to tell where the town leaves oflf and the city begins. One 
merges into the other as the boy develops into the man. 

A young lawyer who argued his first case before a justice of the peace, 
said he would devote his argument to the evidence, assuming that the 
court was familiar with the law. Very much to his surprise, the 'squire 
decided against him, and the cases was appealed from court to court until 
it finally reached the highest tribunal. 

The young man, in presenting his case this time, began at the very 
fundamental principles of the law and was unfolding his argument in 
great detail when the chief justice suggested that time was precious, and 
that the speaker could perhaps shorten his speech by assuming that the 
court knew the elementary principles of law. 

''No, sir," replied the attorney; "I want to do the best I can for my 
client, and that is the very mistake I made in the lower court." 

You laugh at this? Napoleon Bonaparte was the greatest military 
genius who ever lived — with the possible exception of some of our Ken- 
tucky colonels. He made more fatal mistakes than any other general 
ever did. His trip to Moscow was made too late in the fall; his invasion 
of Africa was a wild goose chase ; his battle of Waterloo was fought a day 
too soon. But Napoleon never made the same mistake twice. 

Now I have touched upon the subject of evolution, and, as I want to 
do the best I can with my subject, I am afraid to assume that this entire 
court is familiar with the law of evolution. 

Darwin's story of evolution is that plant life merged into animal life, 
probably the microbe. The microbe became a tadpole. Then, by degrees, 
the tadpole shed his tail and became a frog. The frog, after a season 
of hopping around, unfolded a tail and became a monkey. Then the 
monkey, with one link missing, developed into a man and so on up the 
line. 

Next followed an ascending scale of development in man. The naked 
savage, feasting on his kind, gave way to the more civilized order of 
being. Then came the improvement of body, the development of mind, 



CHARLES MAYFIELD MEAGHAM. 261 

until, finally, through many successive stages of advancement, the man- 
aging editor of the daily paper was evolved. 

1 am not here to say that Darwin was right. This theory destroyed 
his religion and led him into agnosticism. Away with science when it 
conflicts with the story of Genesis and destroys the faith of our fathers! 

I want to pause here, though, to say that I am not without respect 
for the monkey, whether he is my ancestor or not. There are many points 
of similarity between men and monkeys. The human race is divided into 
three distinct branches — black, ■ yellow and white. The Simian race is 
divided into three branches — apes, monkeys and baboons. Do you know 
the difference? Call a man an ape and you compliment his ability to 
imitate. Call him a monkey, and you flatter his sense of humor. Call 
him a baboon, and you have a fight on your hands. 

I do not stand alone in my respect for the orang-outang. King Solomon 
seems to have had a fondness for monkeys, as well as wives, and he im-» 
ported apes from Ophir into Palestine. Even before his day, the Eg3^tians 
worshiped them. 

It is hardly fair to compare the wild monkey with the educated man. 
If man begins where the monkey leaves oflF, we should compare the 
educated monkey with the wild man; for instance, our royal subject, the 
Sultan of Sulu, who eats 'em alive. 

Professor R. L. Gamer, one of the great scientists of the day, has 
undertaken to elevate the monkey, just as man has been elevated. He 
has spent years with them in their native forests, has seen them in con- 
ventions, has attended their banquets, and claims to have learned their 
language and professes to be able to converse with them in their own 
ton^e. He has deliberately declared, in a recent article, that some mon- 
keys have more sense than some men, a proposition that I am not prepared 
to dispute. 

Macdonnell, a scientist of the last century, dropped into poetry to 
express this idea in the couplet: 

"Do chatt'ring monkeys mimic men, 
Or we, turned apes, out-monkey them?" 

But I am not here to answer conundrums, nor to indulge further in 
personalities in this presence. 

"One science only can one genius fit, 
So vast is art, so narrow human wit." 

My specialty is not evolution, or what Darwin calls natural selection. 
In fact, I am in some doubt as to what my long suit is. It may be stopping 
State primary elections, but I am not altogether sure. 

A distinguished politician once asked a noted preacher what he intended 
to make out of the lusty youth who was playing on the lawn. The 
preacher replied: "My wife and I believe in natural selection, and, to find 
out the bent of the boy's mind, we put him in a room with a Bible, a 
dollar and an apple. I said to her if, when we return, the boy is reading 
the Bible, I will make a preacher of him and let him follow in my footsteps; 
if he has pocketed the dollar, we will make a banker of him; if he is 
playing with the apple, we will put him on a farm. When we returned, 
the boy was sitting on the Bible, clutching the dollar in one hand and 



262 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

eating the apple from the other, and I said : Wife, this boy is a hog and 
fit for nothing but a politicran.' " 

However reluctant you may be to have me quit, the time is approaching 
when I must tear myself away from you. Before entering upon the 
brilliant and spectacular peroration with which I shall eventually conclude, 
I want to thank you very kindly for the patience and fortitude that you 
have displayed throughout this trying ordeal. I never bored an audie'nce 
that seemed to take it so good-naturedly or to bear so little resentment. 
(Applause.) 

While waiting for the applause to subside, I was reminded of a sick 
man who had a talking wife. A doctor was sent for to prescribe for the 
husband. When he left, he said to the wife: "Your husband is not danger- 
ously ill. All he needs is rest, so I have prescribed this opiate." 

"How often shall I give it to him?" she asked. 

"Oh, don't give it to him at all ; take it yourself." 

I think the time has about arrived when I should take the opiate myself 
to give this nervous audience a rest. 

However, I have one more real good thing that I want to get off. 
It is really the best part of my speech. I have reserved it for the last as 
a sort of dessert, to leave a good taste in your mouths. It is contained in 
the three words, I am done. 



RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE. 

[Richard Hickman Menefee, Lawyer, Congressman, Orator, was born in 
Owingsville, Bath. County, Ky., December 4, 1809; educated by his mother and 
at public school; taught school at fifteen; graduated from Transylvania Uni- 
versity; studied law and was. admitted to the bar in 1830; Commonwealth 
Attorney in 1832; elected to the Legislature in 1832; Member of Congress 
1837-39; retired from political life on account of ill health; practiced law 
at Lexington, Ky.; died in Frankfort, Ky., February 21, 1841. He married 
in 1830 the daughter of Matthew H. Jouett, the portrait painter.] 

THE MAINE BOUNDARY QUESTION. 

A speech delivered in the United States House of Representatives, 
Washington, D. C, March 1, 1839, on the bill giving the President additional 
power for the defense of the United States, etc. 

The debates on this question have been characterized by such ability 
and fullness of detail as to spare me the necessity of going at length into 
particulars of the controversy between Great Britain and the United States, 
or even into the main points on which the title of the United States to the 
territory in dispute is founded. I propose but to state the conclusions to 
which I have come respecting this controversy — conclusions drawn from- 
an anxious and solemn consideration of all the information attainable 
through the protracted correspondence between the two nations, their de- 
bates in Parliament and Congress, or other sources within my reach and 
to express my opinion upon the measures which the existing emergency 
demands. 

That the whole territory in dispute belongs rightfully to the United 
States under the treaty of 1783, I do not for one instant hesitate with the 
utmost confidence to pronounce. It is demonstrable. It has already been 
demonstrated. Nor, sir, do I hesitate with equal confidence to pronounce 
that the claim to that territory on the part of Great Britain is altogether 
unfounded and attempted to be supported by argument too untenable and 
frivolous, in my opinion, to comport with either the dignity or candor of a 
great nation. The right, therefore, being more manifestly with the United 
States, the party who contests it on the palpably insufficient grounds 
assumed by Great Britain must be held answerable before the world for 
whatever evils so unfounded a pretension may tend to produce. All nations 
are tenacious of territory and territorial disputes are, from their nature, more 
likely than most any other to engender mutual irritation and exasperation, 
in which both parties are liable to err. But the fault and consequent 
responsibility for it all lies with the party which, by the assertion of an 
unjust claim, thus exposes both to such consequences. 

It is in view only that I now consider the question of right to the 
disputed territory and not as furnishing a reason for the measures proposed 
not to be taken by the United States, for these measures flow from other 
reasons than those of conviction of this right and of a fixed resolution to 
maintain it; they flow from an emergency which has lately arisen — new 
and peculiar. 

Great Britain, sir, claims exclusive jurisdiction over the disputed tern- 



264 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

tory until the dispute shall have been settled. Such a claim urged merely 
in negotiation would, I think, be unreasonable enough. Assuming that 
the right is doubtful (which it is not), it is manifest that the claim, merely 
as such, of one nation is entitled to no higher respect than of another. 
It can not be presumed, in advance of negotiation and adjustment, that 
the claim for either is superior. Independent powers must, in respect, ba 
regarded as equals. To concede that the undivided pretensions of either 
shall be invested with a validity and force denied to the other is to concede 
away, in some sense, an essential attribute of sovereignty. Yet Great 
Britain,, by her claim to exclusive jurisdiction over the subject of dispute 
until it shall have been adjusted, arrogates to herself, undoubtedly, this 
inadmissible superiority over the United States. Nor is the reasoning by 
which this claim is attempted to be maintained less objectionable than 
the claim itself — a reasoning founded on the assumption of the principle 
so humiliating to the United States, that their independence, nationality, 
territory, were derived from Great Britain by grant imparted by the treaty 
of peace of 1783; and that, therefore, Great Britain is to be presumed to 
remain in possession until there has been a transfer in fact. Sir, the treaty 
of 1783 granted nothing — ^neither independence, nationality nor territory; 
that treaty but acknowledged them. For the foundation of all their ines- 
timable rights, the United States point not to the treaty of peace, but to 
the glorious war of independence which preceded it, to occupation and to 
the deeds of the noblest ancestry that ever bled in the cause of freedom, 
to conquest. Sir, I repeat. Great Britain granted nothing; she but acknowl- 
edged and recognized what the United States had themselves accomplished, 
without her and against her. 

This claim, therefore, to exclusive jurisdiction until the termination of 
the controversy, if urged by Great Britain on the general reasoning hitherto 
advanced in its support, in the most unexceptionable form of negotiation, 
it would be the duty of this Government, under every obligation of interest 
and honor, to repel. But, sir. Great Britain of late reposes her claim to 
exclusive jurisdiction upon another foundation, which, if existing as repre- 
sented by her, exhibits it in an imposing if not irresistible light; which is, 
that the United States, in the progress of the negotiation, had concealed, 
by explicit agreement, the right now contended for. This alleged agree- 
ment is asserted in positive terms both by the provincial authorities of New 
Brunswick and the British minister here. Sir, I (in common, I believe, 
with the whole country) was surprised, absolutely astounded, by this an- 
nunciation, so confidently made and from sources so respectable, of the 
existence of such an agreement. If this Government has so agreed, the 
nation was, of course, bound, in faith and honor, to respect the agreement, 
no matter how injurious to our interests or humiliating to our character. 
Sir, I can not express the intensity of the solicitude I felt to hear the 
response which our Government should make to this alleged agreement. 
Could it be possible that any administration had been so unmindful of 
interest and regardless of honor as to have made such a concession ? This 
suspense was of short duration. I now rejoice, sir, profoundly and with 
patriotic thankfulness (as doubtless the nation does, too) , over the prompt 
and unequivocal assurance of our Government that no such agreement 
does or ever did exist. The British minister is respectfully but earnestly 
invited to point to the alleged agreement. Sir, it does not exist, and we 
are left to hope that its existence has been urged under an unintentional 
misconception of the negotiations between the two Governments. Unsup- 



RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE. 265 

ported, therefore, by this pretended agreement, the claim of Great Britain 
to exclusive jurisdiction is thrown back upon the untenable and wholly 
inadmissible reasoning in which it originated. 

But, sir, if the grounds which this Government has invariably assumed 
in resisting the claim by Great Britain to exclusive jurisdiction needed 
additional support, it is furnished by an explicit understanding between 
the two Governments that neither party should exert exclusive jurisdiction 
pending the negotiation, but should be confined to the portions of the 
territory in dispute, then in the possession and under the jurisdiction of 
each, without the right to enlarge "their then existing possessions or jurisdic- 
tion in any respect whatever. This understanding (unlike the agreement 
set up by the British functionaries) admits of being pointed to and shown. 
It has been shown. The correspondence shows it. Nor can its existence 
be contested. This understanding, by itself, arms the United States with 
an argument against the claim of Great Britain (if the question is to be 
submitted to the arbitrament of argument) entirely irresistible, so long as 
the existing understanding shall remain unrescinded. 

But, sir, it appears that argument and negotiation are to be discontinued 
by Great Britain and the more cogent instrumentality of arms to be sub- 
stituted in the enforcement of this claim to exclusive jurisdiction. It is 
announced, officially and unconditionally, by the provincial authorities 
of New Brunswick that they have peremptory instructions from the 
British Government to enforce this claim by arms, if arms be necessary, 
and that those instructions shall, at all hazards, be executed, if the powers 
of the British arms in all the provinces are adequate to their execution. Sir, 
this new manifestation of purpose wholly alters the aspect of the con- 
troversy. It proposes to deprive the United States of the advantages which 
they obviously possess under an original view of the respective claims of 
the two nations, unaffected by any agreement or understanding. It pro- 
poses to trample under foot an explicit understanding, solemnly and for- 
mally recognized, forbidding the pretensions now urged. It proposes, 
finally and worst, to withdraw the adjustment of her claim from the field 
of reason and negotiation and to adjourn it over to the field of arms ! This, 
sir, is the new position which Great Britain has chosen to assume. It is 
altogether her act. She has a right to assume that or any other position 
she pleases with respect to this controversy; we can not prevent that. The 
question now, sir, is: "How shall the United States meet this new position?" 

Mr. Speaker, I am fully sensible of the comparative insignificance of 
the territory in dispute. I have, I trust, duly weighed the deep calamities 
of war in any form, and especially between two nations as powerful and 
as closely connected in commercial and other relations as Great Britain 
and the United States. I know that this nation is unprepared for war. 
I believe I have soberly weighed all the motives to peace. Nor have the 
dangers to which war must ever expose institutions like ours been unconsid- 
ered. All these things have been calmly and resolutely looked in the face, 
and, in the full view of them all, I stand in readiness to repel the pretensions 
of Great Britain by reason and negotiation peaceably, if she is disposed to 
reason and negotiate peaceably, and in perfect readiness to repel her preten- 
sions by arms if she is disposed to compel us to that resort. Sir, if Great 
Britain persists in backing her pretensions by arms, but one alternative is 
left us — dishonor or war; and,^ sir, dishonor the spirit of this nation will 
not endure. Choice of peace or war is with Great Britain. She will mani- 
fest her choice of war by persisting to execute the instructions avowed 



266 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

by the provincial authorities. For, sir, to the peaceable execution of these 
instructions this country can not submit, and never will submit; it is the 
price of its honor to submit. In such an event war is inevitable; on our 
part a righteous war, upon which the smiles of the God of Battles may 
be confidently invoked. If Great Britain wills war, let war come! This 
nation, armed in the righteousness of such a cause, has nothing to fear— 
all to expect. 

In the present posture of this controversy, sir, there is no occasion, nor 
is it proper to animadvert upon the course of our own Government for 
several years past in the conduct of these negotiations. That unjustifiable 
delays have been submitted to may probably be shown. False steps on 
minor points may have been occasionally taken to our prejudice. This would 
but afford cause of complaint by the nation against its own Government; 
whilst, at the same time, the position of Great Britain is rendered by that 
cause still more indefensible. Nor would this be an appropriate occasion 
for arraying the wrongs — still unredressed — which this country has suf- 
fered from Great Britain by encroachments on other portions of our 
territory, or the unatoned outrage upon our territory and the lives of our 
people in the aifair of the Caroline. These are subjects which stand open 
for discussion on their own merits and in the mode which becomes them. 
The present emergency alone is now to be looked to and provided for by 
itself and for itself, and the measures of legislation taken by Congress 
should regard the emergency in that light. I am happy, sir, that the 
Committee on Foreign Relations, to which these momentous subjects were 
committed, have so regarded it. I agree with them generally in the reason- 
ing of their report — entirely agree with them in its tone. 

With respect, sir, to the bill reported by the committee, I regret that 
it is not in my opinion wliolly free from objection. The second section, 
providing for so large a contingent augmentation of the regular force, is, 
I think, unnecessary at the present moment. It confers vast discretionary 
powers upon the President. Those powers may not be abused, it is true, 
but, it is no less true that they are liable to abuse and may be abused. It 
is in seasons like this that free nations are most apt, in their eflforts to 
guard against dangers from abroad, to forego their accustomed jealousy of 
power by erecting precedents which plant the seeds of fatal dangers from 
\vithin. I trust that the committee themselves will, on reflection, perceive 
the inexpediency of this provision and decline further to press it; nor, sir, 
should I have recommended as the committee have done, a special embassy 
to England. I am not sure that the present posture of affairs is such as, 
in strict delicacy, to require or even warrant it. Yet, sir, in the spirit of 
forbearance and peace which I hope may ever characterize the counsels 
of this country, I shall interpose no resistance to the measure, and shall 
be happy in the expectation that it, among other measures, may conduce 
to a speedy termination of this unfortunate controversy, peaceably and hon- 
orably to both natrons. 

I have but to add, sir, the expression of my affected and profound 
desire for peace and, at the same time, my conviction, not less unaffected 
and profound, that the enforcement by arms of the late pretensions of 
Great Britain, as threatened by her provincial authorities, is incompatible 
with honorable peace. 

If Great Britain, in violation of our rights and in disregard of her own 
solemn engagement, shall precipitate a war, this nation, I believe, will, as 
one man, brace itself for the conflict. Other gentlemen better understand 



RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE, 267 

than I do the spirit existing in their respective sections of the Union. The 
nation has, in the history of the past, a guaranty that the region in which 
Kentucky is situated will be found promptly obedient to the calls of the 
national honor. Satisfy them that peace is dishonorable, and they are for 
war. They will not inquire how much or how little territory is involved 
in the dispute; they will not surrender an inch if it involves a sacrifice of 
the national honor. They will never consent to graduate honor by interest. 
They fought the battles of the country in the late war, from the Thames 
to the Balize, over questions wholly maritime, in which they had no direct 
interest. Yet, sir, the national honor demanded that war; and, maritime 
in its origin as it was, it found nowhere in the Union more ardent and 
steadfast votaries than were found a thousand miles in the interior. Sir, 
as they were prompt then, so they will be prompt now to vindicate to 
the utmost and to the last extremity the honor of the country. They will 
not now calculate, as in times past they never have calculated, the sacrifices 
which such a contest may involve. They regard the maintenance of the 
national character and honor as paramount to all other considerations, for 
they see in it the only means of enjoying, in security, any of the inestimable 
blessings which heaven has plainly reserved for their country. For this 
they deem no sacrifice too dear. Money, property, blood — count and 
measure it all — it is yours freely if the vindication of the national honor 
demands it ! 



CASSIUS E. MERRILL. 

[Cassius Exum Merrill, Editor "Kentucky Magazine," Lexington, Ky., 
was born in Clark County, Ky., opposite Boonesboro, at the old pioneer home 
of bis maternal great-grandfather. Captain "Billy" Bush, who came from 
YilSiaia, with Daniel Boone; removed to Mississippi, joined the 22d Mississ- 
ippi Infantry Regiment, C. S. A., April, 1861; at Bowling Green, Ky., Febru- 
ary, 1862, was promoted First Lieutenant from the ranks by General Albert 
Sidney Johnston; was afterwards Adjutant-General of Thomas M. Scott's Bri- 
gade to the close of the war; by profession a Lawyer; by practice a Jour- 
nalist] 

A MEDLEY OF MEMORIES. 

A speech in prose and verse delivered at the Confederate Reunion, Louis- 
ville, Ky., May 30, 1900. 

How are they blotted from the things that be!"— Walter Scott. 

Drifting away beyond an unknown sea — 
Not from the memory of you or me ! 
Slow drop the links. Again, and yet again, 
We stronger weld the ever-shortening chain, 
Till the far shore which rises from the Past 
Seems even this year nearer than the last. 

With naked hands, 

Once more the Old Line stands! 

(Not to be tantalized with serious mention 

Of any long unlooked-for, absent-minded pension.) 

Legs without feet can bring no dread alarms; 

Arms without hands and "all hands" without arms! 

Thrice armed are we, long after war's surcease. 

Not with the arms of War, but arts of Peace. 

Thus with empty hands 

The Old Line stands! 

Without blast or blare 

Of trumpets breaking on the startled air. 

And with no roll of drums. 

The old Confederate comes. 

But with a glad "All hail!" 

And with a sad "All hail!" 

From hill and vale, 

From dimpling lakes 

And sunny brakes; 

From Rio Grande, 

The Western border of a sun-lit land; 

From trailing vines 

And sentinel pines; 

From old Potomac to Biloxi's Isles; 



CASSIUS E. MERRILL, 269 

From many a bright bayou, 

To where the sibillant Suwanee smiles, 

Through lily-banks of snow 

We come! 

Battle's array instead. 

To mingle here, the living with the dead, 

To testify the love we bear once more 

For those who linger still and those who're gone before. 

God's wooded temples evermore endure, 

Sacred to those who still keep pure 

Honor's unbroken law 

Along the shining heights of Kennesaw; 

By Bull Run's crimson nils; 

All around the heroic city's hills; 

Up Malvern's rugged side — 

Down Shenandoah's tide — 

Along the bristling lines of Seven Pines; 

At Shiloh, deathless name ! 

Round Gettysburg's encircling walls of flame, 

By Chickamauga's flood — 

On Franklin's fiefd of blood. 

Go tell the world, 

Which, with one voice, the palm of glory yields 

To Valor's proudest sons and best. 

That on a hundred fields. 

Beside their battered shields, 

Three times three times three hundred rest 

In mute obedience to heaven's high behest! (a) 

(a) "Go tell the Spartans that three hundred of their soldiers sleep 
here in obedience to their laws." — Inscription at Thermopylae, 



THE BOY HERO OP TENNESSEE. 

And lo! Thy matchless boy, oh Tennessee! 
With pinioned arms beneath the gallows tree, 
Looked forth unmoved into the wintry skies. 
The nut-brown ringlets dangling o'er his eyes. 
He by his captors once again implored : 
"Spea^ the one word; to freedom be restored!" 

The lifted signal. "Hold!" the General cried. 
And, springing up, stood by the hero's side : 
"Justice and mercy plead ! Why still deny ? 
Too young, too noble and too brave to die! 
Your mother, father, sisters, when they learn — 
Even now, perhaps, they wait your long return. 
Dear boy, one word: The real culprit's name! 
Tis he should bear this penalty and shame. 
Live for your mother! Think a moment how— 



W KENTUVKT ELOQUENCE. 

"Not with the brand of fraud upon my brow! 

I and the 'culprit', too, might both go free — 

The broken pledge would haunt not him, but me. 

How light soe'er what promise man may make 

Must be held sacred for his honor's sake. 

My mother — " (choking back the sob but half concealed, 

His head drooped low — at last, must nature yield?) 

"My mother !" flashed again the tear-dimmed eye — 

"At her dear knee she taught me how to die. 

Her loving heart would be too sorely pained 

If to her lips were pressed her boy's with falsehood stained." 

"My brave, brave boy!" the pleader urged again; 
"A boy in years, yet worth a thousand men 
Like him for whom, the traitor, coward, knave. 
You'd lay your own brave, young life down to save. 
Speak, speak ! Life is so sweet. Be free once more — " 

"I never knew how sweet life was before — 
More words are useless. General. Please forgive — 
You're kind, but if I had a hundred lives to live, 
I'd give them all ere I could face the shame. 
And bear through life a base, dishonored name." 

The die was cast. Our tears were idle tears 

For him who gave one day and gained a thousand years. 

Centuries on centuries may circle by. 

But still he is not dead — Sam Davis can not die! (b) 

(6) Young Sam Davis, aged seventeen years, was captured as a Con- 
federate scout at Pulaski, Tenn., November 27, 1863. Important Federal 
papers were found on his person as he was escaping hack to Bragg's army. 
His manly, modest bearing so enlisted the admiration and sympathy of officers 
and men — especially of General Dodge, who commanded the department of 
Middle Tennessee, that they made every effort to save him after sentence 
had been pronounced. He was told if he would name the person from whom he 
secured the documents, he himself should be promptly released. It was after- 
wards thought that a negro boy about headquarters was guilty, but whoever 
it may have been, the negro, a Union private or a commissioned officer, young 
Davis remained firm to the end. "My word is pledged not to tell,' said he. 
"I will die with the secret, but will not betray the one who trusted me." 
If Major Andre or Nathan Hale had been so tempted, could either have re- 
sisted with such fortitude? A few years ago a noble monument to the boy- 
martyr was erected at his Tennessee home, to which General Dodge contributed 
liberally. 

* * * * 
WHAT THE SOUTH WON. 

Such sons as this, heroic State, 

Made thee and all the Southland great ; 

And, oh, to know 

We loved them so 

Is Time's most sacred recompense! 

They, dying, drew us to that eminence 



CA8SIUS E. MERRILL, 271 

-^ Which, of all life, is the diviner part, 

And hence 

The Old South comes again 
To testify unto the sons of men 
Her ever-faithful heart ! 
It is well 

For those who sleep where they fell, 
Since that brave spot on which the soldier dies. 
Of all this earth, lies nearest to the skies. 
And by His love which shrines our patriot graves, 
Who walked the waters and who stilled the waves. 
She, though her prayers are answered or denied. 
Sees God in all and heaven still justified; 
With royal heart still trod disaster down — 
Above the cross resplendent shone the crown ! 
Lo, out of bitterness there came forth sweet ! 
Lo, here was victory even in defeat ! 
Her dauntless sons drew round the holy shrine. 
Where Liberty maintains her right divine. 
And, from the wreck and ruin of the past, 
Local self-government was saved at last ! 

The Cause she won, be this her proudest boast, 
Alone should sanctify the Cause she lost ; 
Better the one should die before its birth, 
Than let the other perish from the earth. 
Round her immortal brow this chaplet bind : 
In saving this she helped to save mankind ! (c) 

(c) The victory won by the Southern States for civil liberty and local 
self-government is the most notable of political history. That triumph has 
saved all the States, North and South, to the sovereignty designated in the 
Constitution of the United States, and the settled decisions of the Supreme 
Court as delivered by Judges Fuller, Harlan, Brewer and other eminent 
jurists, recognize the principles for which Southern statesmen have always 
contended. 

« ^ « « 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

And it is well that he. 

Whose life, by heaven's decree, 

Was long preserved to make and keep us free, 

Who stood so long, 

Our bulwark great and strong, 

The central figure of our hopes and fears, 

(Immortal crown of eighty glorious years!) 

He, in the sorrows which our love survives. 

Gave to the State not one, but many lives ! 

And, more. 

Long time he bore 

Another Atlas, proud and yet unbent, 

A tyrant's hard decree — ^vicarious punishment ! 



272 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

And in his breast, defying envious Fate, 

Received the arrows leveled at the State. 

Who in the forum plead for us, 

And in the battle bled for us; 

Who suffered cruel pains for us, 

And wore the prisoner's chains for us. 

And, still victorious, higher and higher rose, 

Surviving all his most envenomed foes ! 

For when, at last, the final summons came, 

He left to aftertime a spotless name ; 

From where magnolia droops her creamy bloom, 

And Old Virginia gave her proudest tomb, 

He passed— 'neath many a spreading festooned arch — 

Through weeping States on Death's triumphal march! 

Call ye that conquered? With the latest breath, 

We hail him victor still, who conquers Fate and Death ! 

* * * * 

THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH. 

And what can be said of them, whose heroism, nor words of prose nor 
rhyme may compass ! Oh, glorious womanhood of our Southland, scarred 
and desolate once, yet sad, tender and sweet always as an angel's dream 
•of heaven and home, many daughters have done virtuously, but ye excelled 
them all ! 

Amid the lurid days of war, and the darker days of reconstruction, 
they hung not their harps upon the willows to sit down and weep by the 
waters of the social and political Babylon which flowed all round about, 
but, stripping the jewels from hand and brow, laid them upon the insatiate 
altars of sacrifice. With deft and delicate fingers, they bent above the 
wash tub and plied the shuttle as if such duty had been the one pleasure 
of a lifetime; and if, meantime, came unbidden tears, cold, silent and 
dark, they were shed in secret where no eye could see, and for the father's, 
the husband's and the brother's sake they wove smiles alone and sunshine 
into the warp and woof of daily toil. She brought forth from its attic 
the long-forgotten loom, and the old spinning-wheel crooned anew its 
music in the parlor. When all the sons and sires had marched away, they 
fed from fallow fields and clothed the naked. She laid her hand to the 
spindle — her hands held the distaff. She opened her mouth with wisdom 
and on her tongue was the law of kindness. From the depths of her own 
poverty she stretched forth her hands to the needy. From bed-room and 
parlor she cut the carpets into blankets for her soldiers on far-off fields 
and, with half-clad feet, on naked floors and over thorny paths, walked 
the way to such victory as man had never achieved and time has never 
recorded. Her children rise up and call her blessed — her children's children 
praise her in the gates. Monuments of brass may crumble into dust, the 
memory of earth's conquerors may fade into oblivion, but thy one virtuous 
name, O woman of the dear Old South, shall shine a beacon star on 
history's page to all heroic souls forever! 



CASSIUS E. MERRILL. 273 

PER ASPERA AD ASTRA. 

Soldiers of North or South, on you 'twas laid. 

To deal and feel the shell, the ball, the blade. 

Per aspera ad astra : Darkest nights 

Lead ever upward to sublimer heights. 

Too hard we've learned the lesson to forget, 

If love of country be our watchword yet ; 

And thou, oh God, whose hand is over all — 

Who know'st nor time nor space nor great nor small, 

Whose chariots are the clouds, whose lightnings are 

Thy messengers, and pestilence and war — 

Whose milky baldric, far from East to West, 

Is but the jewelled girdle round Thy breast ; 

Thy voice the thunder when the storms prevail — 

Thy smile the rainbow and Thy breath the gale. 

Be with us still and keep our whole broad land 

Safe in the hollow of Thy outstretched hand. 

Till each shall learn, whatever he makes or mars, 

We needs must pass through rough ways tO' the stars, (d) 

(d) "Soldiers of the Union, Republicans and Democrats alike, with you 
we have no quarrel. We felt your heavy arm in the hour of battle, but above 
the cannons roar we heard your kindly voices calling, 'Brothers, come 
back!'" — Ben. Hill's speech replying to Blaine in Congress, 1873. 



17 



THOMAS METCALFE. 



[Thomas Metcalfe, Governor, United States Senator, was born in 
Fauquier County, Va., March 20, 1780; died in Nicholas County, Ky., August 
18, 1855; his parents were poor, emigrated to Kentucky and settled in Fay- 
ette County; after a few months in a country school he worked with a stone 
cutter, devoting his leisure to study; he served in the war of 1812, and com- 
manded a company; Member of the Legislature three years; Member of 
Congress from December, 1819, till June 1, 1828; Governor of Kentucky 
1829-1833; Member of the State Senate in 1834; President of the Board of 
Internal Improvement in 1840; appointed United States Senator in place of 
John J. Crittenden (resigned), serving from July 3, 1848, till March 3, 1849, 
when he retired to his farm.] 

THE CONFEDERATED REPUBLIC, STATE RIGHTS AND PROTEC- 
TION TO NATIONAL INDUSTRIES AND TO 
OCCUPANT FARMERS. 

A speech delivered by Thomas Metcalfe in July, 1828, to the voters of 
Nicholas County, announcing his candidacy for Governor. 

Fellow Citizens of Kentucky : 

It is known to you that I have consented to become a candidate for 
Governor of the State of Kentucky. You are fully apprised of all the 
circumstances under which I have been induced thus to present myself to 
your consideration. If, upon that scrutiny which it is your duty to make, 
a just appreciation of my character and qualifications shall determine you 
to withhold from me your support, whatever may be my regret, I shall 
have no right to complain. Permit me to assure you that if I had been 
governed solely by the dictates of my own conscience, I certainly should 
not have assumed the attitude in which I am now placed before you. But 
there are times and occasions, in the course of public affairs, when the 
citizen should yield his opinion to that of his friends and sacrifice all his 
anticipations of a tranquil and peaceful retreat from the perplexities and 
troubles of political strife upon the altar of his country. 

Fully aware of the indications which I have received of public senti- 
ment, you will not accuse me of inordinate ambition, although you may 
not think proper to give me your support. I must have been insensible to 
the obligations of so much friendship and confidence, and not duly mindful 
of the duties of a citizen, had I been inattentive to the voice which nom- 
inated me as a candidate. Under such circumstances, no alternative was 
left me but to stand the election, or turn ingloriously from the cause 
from which I believed the best and dearest interests of my country to be 
deeply, vitally and permanently involved. I have, therefore, taken my 
ground under a firm resolution to bow with the utmost deference and 
respect to the decision of that tribunal at whose bar I stand; and that 
majority which, in the end, must and ought to prevail. 

After having numbered many years in the discharge of high official 
trusts, I might content myself by referring you to the past as best evidence 
of my political views, as well as my qualifications to serve you in the 
future. But in times like the present, when we appear to be rapidly and 



THOMAS METCALFE. 276 

unconsciously approaching the whirlpool of anarchy, .when the public mind 
is distracted with so many conflicting views and interests, or supposed 
interests, when by the ambition of bold and daring aspirants, sectional jeal- 
ousies are excited and encouraged, when the vital principles of the Con- 
stitution are not only insidiously but openly assailed, when the most im- 
portant questions of constitutional power between the Federal and State 
governments are newly starting into vigorous existence with great ma- 
lignity of aspect, and long and well-settled questions re-agitated to disturb 
the delicate and nicely-balanced equilibrium, it becomes the duty of lovers 
of peace and good government,' by all honorable means, to endeavor to 
avert the fatal consequences of the gathering storm. 

It is vain, fellow citizens, to attempt to disguise the melancholy fact 
that we have amongst us many querulous and speculative political schemers 
who are endeavoring to exhibit the Federal and State governments to the 
public mind in the unreal and unnatural attitude of angry rivals for power; 
unless those mischievous harbingers of anarchy are promptly met, resisted 
and defeated, by the intelligence and patriotism of a virtuous people, their 
wily struggles will unhinge all the fastenings and snap every ligament that 
binds us together as one great, prosperous and powerful nation. 

Is it not undeniably true, has not experience unequivocally proven, 
that the ingenuity of man could not have devised a form of national govern- 
ment better suited to the important objects designed to be secured and 
constituting a safer depository of useful delegated authority than that of 
this confederated republic ? I here allude to powers which are not claimed 
by States and which could not be exercised by any one of them separately. 
For I will not disguise the fact that I am myself devoted to States' rights 
and decidedly opposed to the slightest advances of Federal encroachment. 
But I would not paralyze the energies of the national Government by 
denying to it the power to guard our national independence and individual 
rights against the encroachments of foreign governments — prostrate not 
my country at the footstool of foreign monarchies, the crouching suppliant 
of their mercy. 

I will not indulge in any gloomy forebodings as to the probable down- 
fall of the republic. This would evince an unmanly distrust of the virtue 
and intelligence of my countrymen. But as an old public sentinel, accus- 
tomied to watch the progress of political aflfairs, to note the passing events 
and carefully to guard against all tendency to disunion, I will not cry from 
the watch-tower, "All's well," while the enemy lies in ambush or lurks 
around the fortress. The enemies of the republic are on the alert. Their 
assaults have been upon the weakest points; they have discovered where 
we are the most vulnerable to their attacks. They are clothed in the 
habiliments of friendship and in this disguise are endeavoring to overturn 
the citadel. It is our duty to disrobe them of the mantle which they have 
put on and to expose them to the public and to themselves in all their 
naked deformity, for I charitably believe that the most of them know not 
M^hat they are doing. 

Look, fellow citizens, at the memorials and resolutions of some of our 
sister States of the South. They deny that Congress has the power to 
do that which was done by the very first Congress that assembled under 
the Constitution, composed in part of some of the most illustrious framers 
and advocates of that instrument; that which has been repeatedly sanc- 
tioned by subsequent Congresses and by every President from Washington, 
the great Father of his Country, to the present day; they deny that 



276 KENTVCKT ELOQUENCE, 

Congress ha^ the power to protect our national industry against foreign 
competition and disturbance. To me it appears clear that it is not only 
the right, but the duty of the nation, by an enlightened forecast, to 
provide for ourselves the articles of food, raiment and self-defense; to 
guard against the evils resulting from caprices, the changes and viccissi- 
tudes of other nations to multiply our pursuits, and give variety to pro- 
ductive labor, so as to ensure profitable employment, with the other means 
of subsistence and comfort, to our whole population, of every genus, 
age, sex or condition. Does not a variety of useful and productive 'occu- 
pations imply real knowledge, as well as individual and national wealth? 
Not confineci to a particular spot, or compelled to pursue any designated 
occupation, how can any one portion of the community be enriched at the 
expense of the rest ? Are all the great leading interests of society so very 
discordant that the prosperity of the one necessarily involves the others 
in ruin and destruction ? Can good patriots and statesmen believe that the 
American system, emphatically so called, is a system of exclusion or 
monopoly? Let us pursue the policy which presents the strongest incen- 
tives to and opens new and additional sources of industry; multiply the 
mechanic arts and all the useful pursuits of civil life, not forgetting to 
encourage and foster the production of such of the fruits of the earth as 
a bountiful Providence hath adapted to our soil and our climate. It is 
by this division of labor that we diminish the number of persons employed 
in a particular branch of business, and consequently enhance the profits 
of all; enrich the nation and secure to the hand of industry the fruits of 
its labor. In short, if this American system dispenses peculiar favors to 
particular classes of the community, it is to those who toil. The enter- 
prising forecast of our citizens will secure them against oppression and 
prevent monopoly. No one branch of business will, or can, for any consid- 
erable length of time, be more profitable than another. That which is 
most profitable now will soon f^il, and that which is least profitable will 
rise until each shall have found its proper level. The labor and capital 
of intelligent people will naturally flow into the most lucrative channels, 
until each shall have received its appropriate supply. In exercising this 
power, however, I admit that great deliberation and caution, and even 
forbearance, ought to be observed, especially in selecting the items and fix- 
ing the rate of duty, so various and diversified are the interests to be tem- 
porarily affected by it. But to surrender the power will be to surrender 
the destiny of this nation to foreign legislation and hostile policy. In the 
compass of the address, I can do no more than barely touch (as I have 
attempted to do) upon a few of the more prominent points in which this 
great national question is to be viewed. 

There are various other subjects upon the constitutionality and ex- 
pediency of which distinguished statesmen and the Legislatures of the 
different States disagree. We have within the bosom of our country many 
free persons of color, a degraded case, a miserable and wretched population, 
whose condition, while they remain among us, no length of time can im- 
prove. The pernicious effects of their mixed society will be felt and de- 
plored to the latest posterity. Religion, sound policy and humanity unite 
in dictating their removal. A benevolent society, with the most flattering 
prospects of success, are endeavoring to remove such of them as may volun- 
tarily consent to go to the land of their fathers. The Legislatures of some 
of the States (and Kentucky, to her honor, among them) united in this 
benevolence of Congress to aid and ^ve countenance to their philanthropic 



THOMAS METCALFE. 277 

undertaking. But some of the States solemnly protest against all such 
interference and denounce it as an infringement upon the rights of States, 
or of individuals. I am free to declare, both upon the grounds of principle 
and expediency, that the objects of the society have my entire approbation. 
Our own country would be greatly benefited by the removal of a burden- 
some population, while there is a fair prospect of ameliorating their condi- 
dition and a lively hope of extending the blessings of civilization and the 
rights of the Christian religion over the land of their barbarous and 
beknighted forefathers. 

There is yet one subject, fellow citizens, which I hold to be sufficiently 
interesting to many, if not to all of you, to justify me in noticing it in this 
address; and I certainly would not notice it for the sake of all fleeting 
popularity which I have been sorry to see some of its pretended and time- 
serving votaries gain by it. I have availed myself of every opportunity 
to sustain the occupant farmers of the State against the wrongs and injuries 
which they have endured on account of the landed litigation in which they 
have been involved. I have long looked upon the uncertain tenure of the 
home of the husbandman as a grievance of the utmost magnitude and not 
to be borne or tolerated by an intelligent people. And to pretend that 
Kentucky has surrendered so much of her sovereign power as a member 
of the Confederacy that she can not secure to the fair and bona fide occu- 
pant, who may have the misfortune to lose his land, the value and capital 
which he had invested in improvements, is, to my mind, but little short of 
an outrage upon the common sense of mankind. It is a doctrine at war 
with every just conception of the sovereign powers of a State. It is here 
that I would erect my batteries in the defense of "State rights." I would 
defend the right of a State to defend the right of a State, to guard its 
citizens against injustice and oppression, to promote their peace, prosperity 
and happiness by the exertion of powers from which some practical good 
might be expected to flow; and not for the ignoble purpose of obstructing 
the operations of the general Government, of paralyzing its energies and 
producing disorder and confusion, without having in view any practical 
good to the state of its inhabitants. Of the constitutionality of the act 
of 1812, concerning the occupants, I have never doubted. I believed, 
and do still believe, that the amendments proposed by myself to that law 
were also constitutional, founded on principles of justice and dictated by 
the soundest policy. The act to which I referred is not only defective, but 
absurd in some of its provisions. It does not secure to the fair and bona 
fide occupant, who has the misfortune to lose his land, the value of his 
improvements, but, in most cases, it authorizes the successful claimants 
to compel the occupant to keep the land and to pay its value, not in its 
wild state, as when the occupant seated upon it, but pay its value at the 
time of assessment. That value, as estimated by the commissioners, ex- 
ceeds, in some instances, the full amount for which the land and improve- 
ments can be sold, and in other instances to nearly as much, so as to sink 
in part or toto the improvements. Besides, this law authorizes the success- 
ful claimant to disposses the occupant before he pays for his improve- 
ment, even when the former elects to oust the latter, instead of compelling 
him to buy land. I would only add that, in my opinion, the Legislature is 
bound, by every consideration of justice and sound policy, to go to the 
utmost extent of its constitutional competency to guard the 'occupants of 
the State against the wrongs and injuries which they have endured and to 
put to rest forever that most ruinous and afflicting source of litigation. 



278 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

Inheriting no part of this world's wealth, an orphan yet in his minority, 
I adopted the creed that true dignity, as well as public and private utility, 
consists in discharging the various duties of life according to the condition 
in which our respective lots may be cast and the circumstances by which 
we are surrounded and, consequently, I went to work. With a light heart 
and a free good will did I go to work, firmly resolving under the auspices 
of a kind Providence, to do as much in my limited sphere of action, and 
the still more limited means at my command, was in my power to do, 
rejoicing especially that my lot had been cast in a republic established by 
the intelligence and consecrated by the blood of our brave and virtuous 
forefathers; I rejoiced the more on account of that equality of rights and 
privileges which such a Government dispenses to all classes of society — 
to the sons and daughters of adversity, as well as to those upon whom 
showers of prosperity have fallen — a Government stimulated by so many 
incentives and holding out so many inducements to useful, virtuous and 
honorable action. 

For my political advancement I am not indebted to the smiles of the 
great and powerful; to that unchastened and partisan zeal which omits to 
scan the fair pretensions of candidates for public favor and to discriminate 
according to merit; to no political intrigues, no juggling combinations, or 
to any other cause, the recollection of which brings with it either shame 
or remorse. As the resident of a little valley, cut off by the neighboring 
hills from the wealthy and populous sections of the country, but little 
known beyond the bounds of a militia company, at the head of which it 
had been the pleasure of those who composed it to place me, my respected 
toiling neighbors selected me as one of themselves to run for the Legisla- 
ture. It was here that my public career received its first impulse, extending 
first over my county and finally over the congressional district. At the 
call of that class of citizens, of which I am an humble member, have I, 
on various occasions, laid down the instruments of my daily labor to serve 
them and my country, both in civil and military capacities, at home and 
abroad. It is to them that I am indebted for my elevation to office. It 
is to them that I am bound in all sacred 'obligations of gratitude and respect. 
And no man shall deprive them of my sincere acknowledgements or rob 
them of their due by any unhallowed or any unworthy imputations of the 
day. Justice, honor, gratitude, and even self interest, still bind me to them. 
Our avocations and pursuits are the same, our interests inseparable. 

I now tender myself to your consideration, just as I am, a plain man 
with no extravagant confidence in my power to serve you, but with some 
practical knowledge of the politics and interests of my country, attempting 
to draw no invidious comparisons, to make no demagogical distinctions, 
but especially devoted to the interests of my brethren by profession and 
practice, believing that upon their prosperity rests that every other profes- 
sion which is entitled to consideration. 



REUBEN A. MILLER. 

[Reuben A. Miller, LawTer, Owensboro, Ky., was born in Ohio County, 
Ky., November 6, 1857; former County Attorney, Hancock County, and former 
State Inspector and Examiner.] 

THE FAMILY DOCTOR. 

An address delivered at the annual meeting of the Kentucky State Med- 
ical Society, held at Owensboro, Ky., in May, 1897. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the State Medical Society: 

If the laity may judge at all of those solemn visaged and familiar 
household tyrants who come to us in sickness and cheerfully torture us 
back to health, I will say that if there be any in this life who do have a 
royal road to success, they have it. As stated in the morning paper, it is 
impossible for us to do without them, and the trouble is that they know it. 
We bravely scout their skill and prowess when we are well, and talk wisely 
of Nature's recuperative forces, and all that, but when we are ill, or think 
we are, which is much the same, we straightway forget our philosophy, 
lower our colors ingloriously in the face 'of the enemy, rush again into the 
dear old bondage and send for the doctor. 

There is within the breast of the dullest and most prosaic a sentiment, 
akin to reverence, and which is almost a superstition, in favor of the old 
family doctor, and it imperiously demands his presence and his services 
upon the slightest provocation. Just what this sentiment is we do not 
know. Mental and moral philosophers have not agreed concerning it. It 
seems to be universal; it certainly is spontaneous in the mind, and clearly 
it is not the product of any process of reasoning. It defies explanation; 
it eludes analysis; it passeth understanding. We only know that it exists, 
and that, while it may be latent in health, it is dominant in times of 
trouble. 

If it were possible to do so, I would not unduly magnify the high and 
priestly office of the family physician, but in the sharp and perilous crises 
of life, especially in that dark hour when the home is hushed and when 
loving hearts are waiting to be blessed with hope or broken by despair, 
his very presence is an inspiration, and his words of encouragement come 
like a benediction. This tender relationship endears him to every hearth- 
stone and virtually incorporates him into every family circle. Will you 
pardon a local example with just a tint of local coloring? A few months 
ago, there died in this city a white-haired veteran of your profession, who 
had spent his life among our people. He was one of the most accom- 
plished and enlightened physicians of the Commonwealth. He was one 
of the noblest philanthropists that ever lived. He was one of the truest 
gentlemen I ever knew. He died universally regretted, and his death 
brought to every man who knew him well a deep sense of personal loss. 
He has gone, but his works do follow him, and this whole community is 
ready to rise up and call him blessed. Though Dr. Tyler peacefully 
sleeps in Elmwood to-night, and green be the sod above him! his name 



880 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

is a household word in every home in Owensboro. He was an ideal family 
physician and his memory is enshrined in the hearts of those who loved him. 

I can not say too much for the learned profession to which you belong. 
At the most important junctures of human life, and in its most trying and 
dramatic passages, it comes as the supreme counselor and constitutes the 
last earthly refuge. Not only is this true when, as an applied science, 
it alleviates the pangs of the suffering and restores to the glorious aris- 
tocracy of health those who are about to languish and to die, but it is 
likewise true when it comes to the aid of baffled justice in the court house 
and directs her faltering footsteps into the straight and narrow way. When 
important questions of life, liberty and property are pressing for solution, 
and the ordinary means of investigation are confessedly inadequate, when 
those charged with the proper determination of these questions are groping 
in a veritable labyrinth of doubt and incertitude, anxious to do right, but 
so very liable to do wrong, the physician comes with his skill and learning, 
with his microscope and with his almost miraculous X-ray, and lays bare 
the mystery. In truth, I know of no higher office or function in civil 
society than that performed by the doctor in court. To the innocent, he 
is a savor of life until life ; to the guilty, of death unto death. 

While for centuries the medical profession was retarded by that per- 
sistent conservatism that was at once its weakness and its strength, within 
the last five or six decades it has received a new birth and has advanced 
with such tremendous and gigantic strides that it has put to shame the 
achievements in every other branch of polite learning. To what heights 
or depths your researches are still to be extended, it would not become us 
to conjecture. It does seem, however, that, in these closing days of this 
wonderful century, the ultimate forces and reserved treasures of Nature are 
just coming into action and possession and that you, more than all others, 
are to be the ministers through whom they are to inure to the benefit of 
mankind. From the earliest times, the medical profession has exercised a 
most potent and beneficent influence on the affairs of men. It has left 
its mark on every day and generation. It has not only participated in every 
conquest in the realm of thought and shared the peaceful but splendid 
triumphs of philosophy, but, be it said to its everlasting honor, it has been 
identified with every close and doubtful struggle for human liberty since 
the days of eld, and it has resisted the aggressions of arbitrary power in 
every quarter of the globe and in every period of its history. 

Its votaries in times past have poured out their blood on the altars of 
patriotism and the down-trodden and the lowly have been aided and blessed 
by the rich oblation. They have sacrificed themselves on each of the 
hard-fought fields that served as stepping-stones in the worid's progress, 
and I speak but the truth of history when I say that they have been in the 
advance guard .of civilization in all its triumphant march from Orient to 
Occident. But, better than all this, there have been unnumbered thousands 
of patient heroes in that profession whose unwritten lives have been de- 
voted to the relief of individual suffering and individual wretchedness, and 
who must forever be unknown, except to those who would read "the short 
^nd simple annals of the poor." 

From Galen, the wonder-worker, the companion and friend of Marcus 
Aurelius, to that good old Scottish doctor, whose life and labors have been 
idealized by the genius of Watson, the members of your profession, with 
a self devotion that is all their own, and with a magnificent altruism that 
other professions would do well to emulate, have given themselves to the 



REUBEN A. MILLER. 281 

betterment of their kind and to the increasing ol the sum of human 
happiness. 

If the ancient Greeks had their Demosthenes in oratory, their Praxiteles 
in sculpture and a thousand demi-gods in war, you have a right to 
remember that in your own Hippocrates they had an iconoclast who, at 
Athens, in Thessaly and at Ddos, cast out the sorceries and incantations 
with which superstition had blinded the eyes of men for ages and first 
applied to the healing art the principles of inductive philosophy. 

There is no fact in the history of that classic land, there is not a legend 
in her song or story, not a dream realized in her imperishable marble, nor 
a passion caught in the immortality of her paintings, that can deserve to 
survive the record made by him who is called the Father of Medicine. 

I can not refrain, in conclusion, from congratulating you, and the people 
of Kentucky as well, on the superb organization which your society has 
effected, and on that most admirable "esprit de corps" which marks its 
action and gives such promise of its future. It is a most auspicious sign 
and it should be hailed as the harbinger of still greater usefulness to the 
people who are, and must ever be, the grateful beneficiaries of your labor. 



RICHARD W. MILLER. 

[Richard W. Miller, Lawyer, was bom in Richmond, Ky., September 25, 
1869; died in Richmond, Ky., June 29, 1906; graduate of Central University 
of Kentucky, class of 1888 ; Lecturer in History and Instructor in Law School 
of Central University; Member of Legislature of Kentucky 1904-05-06.] 

THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT IN THE OLD KENTUCKY HOME. 

A speech delivered at the Home Coming Festivities on Foster Day, at 
Louisville, Ky., June 14, 1906. 

"The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home," and in the fruitful 
richness of a radiant June, when, from every section of this imperial repub- 
lic, the sometime gone, but always loved and unforgotten, wanderers are 
gathered home again, it is fitting that, called into being by the generous 
contributions of the children of the public schools, the little ones, whose 
laughter makes home bright and whose abiding love fills this mortal life 
with more than mortal beauty, there should be dedicated a stately statue 
to the memory of the man whose gentle genius caught the spirit of the 
Commonwealth and gave its noblest sentiment enduring sweetness in the 
lingering melody of a deathless song. 

I have no sort of sympathy with the philosophy of Diogenes, which 
goes up and down this good world, lifting its smoking lantern upon the 
poor weakness and wretched failure here and there, losing sight of splendid 
progress and sublime achievement, everywhere bearing voiceful witness to 
man's kinship with heaven. The songs that are immortal, the thoughts 
which linger to inspire, the deeds whose fragrance abide in benediction 
are those which speak of courage, of truth, of love and righteousness, 
lengthening the horizon of human hope and enlarging all life's limitations. 

At the first note of the "Marseillaise," the Frenchman straightens for 
the charge; amid the solemn cadences of "God Save the King," the 
Englishman bows to the accumulated reverence of centuries; at the swelling 
rhythm of the "Star Spangled Banner," the eyes grow misty in the recol- 
lections of a patriot's longing for the dawn, and we salute the flag that 
carries a nation's history and is resplendent with the glory of its hopes; 
"Yankee Doodle" stimulates and "Dixie" stirs to madness, but one song, 
"My Old Kentucky Home," alone has power to soothe the restless pulse 
of care, and it comes like the benediction that follows after prayer. It 
voices a sentiment, it speaks a message, it stirs the deep wells of the heart 
as nothing else has power to do. 

It conjures visions of a rich and radiant land stretching out from swell- 
ing waves of rivers roll to the towering beauty of the mountains' 
power; of tableland, where life runs sweet and all that's fair and pure and 
good makes ministrations unto man; of spreading fields; of stately trees; 
of waving grain; of verdant green; of matchless grass; of cattle feeding 
on a thousand hills; of woman's beauty and of manhood's strength; of 
stately homes, gleaming white through avenues of trailing trees — the center 
of a people's life, because still the center of a people's love; of a unique 



RICHARD W. MILLER, 283 

and strangely wrought civilization, presenting the -peculiar commingling 
of feudal tradition and democratic history. 

It voices the impulse of the heart ; it speaks of firesides and of house- 
hold gods; its music has enriched the world. Love hums it in a whisper 
above the swinging cradle, where the smile of sleeping childhood bears 
witness that in dreams it sees the angels passing. On blood-stained fields, 
where moving armies thirst for blood, it has purged the heart of hate; in 
crowded cities heaving with thirsty lust and greed for gold; in the waste 
places of the earth; in the glory of the morning's kiss; in the mellowing 
shadows of purple twilight; at home, abroad, in places familiar to the 
feet of man and in the distant islands of the sun-kissed seas, we hear it, 
and always and everywhere the eyes grow misty in the shade of unshed 
tears, and the heart beats strong and true, responsive to the conscious call 
of home. 

So it is fitting that to-day, when joyous, whole-souled welcome makes 
glad the pulsing heart of countless thousands, there should be here unveiled 
in tardy but devoted justice a statue to the memory of Stephen Collins 
Foster. 

Kentucky has lost less of its kinship with the past than any other of 
the five and forty Commonwealth whose united powers and concen- 
trated lights have led the world to freedom. Within her borders life's 
conditions have been little changed. With singular devotion, her people 
have held to the old ideals, and the natural continuity of her destiny has 
not once been broken. 

Cavalier and Puritan have mingled blood and neither type is longer 
local; Huguenot and Scotch Irish have gone through the crucible together 
and fused the best characteristics of each; Catholic and Covenanter have 
forgotten the bitterness and rancor of the other older days in a common 
zeal for souls. Johnstown is swept out with the rush of angry waters, 
Jacksonville feels the breath of killing pestilence, Galveston surrenders 
to the sea, San Francisco trembles into smoking ruins — one touch of Nature 
makes the whole world kin, and the noblest and best exhibition of our one- 
ness is given to the world. There is no North nor South nor East nor 
West, but "one flag, one country and one destiny. 

Peace and plenty smile upon a happy, a contented and prosperous 
people. Science has harnessed Nature to the service of humanity; art has 
been led captive to human comfort ; material blessings have been showered 
about us; thought receives its recompense and labor has its honest wage; 
intelligence is multiplied; education is universal; and thus, with peace preva- 
lent, the law supreme and liberty regnant, in the conscious courage of a 
deathless hope, we journey to a future beyond the reach of vision, saying 
to one another, as simply and as truly as it was said more than three 
thousand years ago, in that far-off meadow by the margin of a mystic 
sea : "Whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge ; 
thy people shall be my people and thy God shall be my God." 

Whilst all of this is true, in some strange way the Kentuckian has 
always preserved his individuality, has never lost his identity, and we love 
to look upon him as a Saul among his brethren, so marked by physical, 
racial and temperamental characteristics that you may mark him among a 
thousand. There must be reason for it, and I think that in his history we 
will find the causes that differentiate him from the most of men. 

^ Roll back the curtain which separates the things that are from the 
things that have been, and a great procession goes trooping by — a pro- 



284 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

cession whose visions move the heart and stir the soul and stimulate to high 
endeavor. From older settlements, across the hills, a dauntless company 
starts out and strikes into a trackless wilderness to fix anew, within an 
unknown land, the outposts of civilization. It winds its way through the 
Gap — along what afterwards became the Old Wilderness Road, until en- 
tranced by beauty more than human, it bivouacked by the Hudson of the 
West and lighted the first camp-fires in the dark and bloody ground, and 
reared the old stockade at Boonesboro. There brave and heroic men and 
still- braver and more heroic women claimed a wilderness for civilization 
and won, through sacrifice and suflFering, in blood and agony and travail, 
a sylvan paradise for peace. The company from beyond the Alleghanies 
grew and, with dauntless courage and consistent effort, in places, long 
since overgrown and near forgotten, they laid broad and deep the founda- 
tions of a free and independent State. 

In all of the glorious annals of our dominant and dauntless race, there 
i^ no more inspiring page. It was a new experiment. It was the first 
settlement in human history which left the touch of older settlements and 
hurled itself across the mountains, three hundred miles from the next out- 
post of civilization. It was a conspicuous success. It produced a society 
and developed a civilization as unique as they are winsome and attractive. 
In the hardships, toil and dangers, in the sympathy, the succor and success, 
in the splendid isolation of earlier days which only men with iron in their 
blood were fitted to endure, we find the reason for that strong, strange 
love of home and home life; that sturdy, stalwart, almost reckless inde- 
pendence; the self-reliance, the poise, the splendid courage, the conscious 
power, the love of right, the hate of wrong, that marks the Kentuckian 
everywhere and makes him leader of his kind. 

This was the man who made up that intrepid band, which caught 
the fire of Clark's magnetic genius and went through snow and ice, through 
hardships beyond speech and difficulties that immortalized endurance, to 
add the Northwestern empire to the republic. It was men grown out of 
such stock, who', with prescient statesmanship, "dipped into the future as 
far as human eye could see, caught the wonders of the world and the 
glories yet to be," read the unborn future and blazed the way to the free 
navigation of the Mississippi and the inevitable acquisition of the Louisiana 
territory. Their rifles won the battle of New Orleans, and their rich, red 
blood, freely shed, was the precious incense through whose smoke Texas 
was added to the stars. In the great conflict of '61, divided between alle- 
giance and love, some went to each army, and, wherever they marched 
or fought or died, they bore themselves as men. And, when the shock 
and strife was over, the Commonwealth they loved was the first of all 
States to blot from her statute books every law bom of the hate of war, 
and opened wide her arms and bade her children come home again, and 
soothe their wounds and rest their bruised heads upon the loving bosom 
of a mother who loved them both alike. 

This is the history, lingering like an inspiration ; this the environment, 
cf which the Kentuckian has wrought his destiny at home. The currents 
of the larger world have often passed him by. Immigration has made 
small impress on either his character or stock. Living close to Nature, 
stimulated by the soil's strong touch, building home and loving it, not given 
to large accumulation, drinking the sweetness of the simple life, he has 
preserved at once his independence and his high ideals. Proud of his Com- 



RICHARD W. MILLER. 286 

monwealth, jealous of his honor, quick of temper, but quicker to forgive; 
free from envy, malice, hate, strangely free from polluting the touch of 
that sordid commercialism which, in the avarice of graceless greed, multi- 
plies riches in the sweat of unremunerated labor and gathers wealth 
through the sufferings of unrequited toil, loving justice, doing equity, 
building on the conservatism of an established law, he has kept the faith 
as it came down from the Father. 

To-day, well across the threshold of a century for the sweep of whose 
enlarging visions the past affords no measure, this Commonwealth, founded 
in faith and builded in courage, faces a radiant morning, big with promise, 
bright with hope. It is a very precious privilege to be called to the kingdom 
for such a time — ^to be privileged to participate in the great movements 
that make for a broader and nobler material development, a more abundant 
and abiding destiny, a richer impulse and a deeper patriotic purpose, for 
loftier standards of public and of private life, for sterner tests of personal 
and corporate honesty, for civic righteousness and truth and justice regnant 
and supreme. 

And here to-day, in the hallowed associations of these happy scenes, 
recalling radiant days that were and glorious days ahead, as we gather 
from the comers of the earth in loving communion in a place that will 
always be to all of us a common home, the Kentuckian at home gives 
you this pledge, that burying all the bitterness and rancor of the other older 
days — if bitterness and rancor there have been — forgetting all that has 
been unjust, forgiving all that has been unkind — if any such has been — 
not in anger nor in strife, not in discord or confusion, freed of faction and 
purged of selfish purpose, in a spirit of high devotion, with deep convic- 
tions and unfaltering faith, looking always up and never down, constructing, 
not destroying, in love and fellowship and fraternity, we lay the honest 
and unselfish service of loyal and devoted hearts and lives on the common 
altar of our common faith, as we set the new Kentucky forward on her 
endless journey along a luminous highway, leading to a destiny beyond 
the reach of vision, within the providence of God. 



ALEXANDER REED MILLIGAN. 

[Alexander Reed Milligan, Professor of Latin in Kentucky University, 
Lexington, Ky., was born in Washington, Pa., December 21, 1842; educated 
at Bethany College and Kentucky University, entered the latter as a student 
September 19, 1859, and has been connected with the University ever since, 
as Tutor, Professor, Principal of Academy, and acting President; received 
degrees A. B. in 1861, A. M., in 1864, and LL. D. in 1902. His father, Robert 
Milligan, was the first President of Kentucky University.] 

MARGARET McDANIEL WOOLLEY. 

A memorial address delivered at a meeting held in Morrison Chapel 
of Kentucky University, Lexington, Ky., Sunday afternoon, February 2, 1902, 
in token of respect for the memory of Miss Margaret McDaniel Woolley, a 
student of the University, who died January 30, 1902. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

It is now a little more than a score of years since the birth of a 
daughter brought a new and an increasing joy to parents who were then 
lodging in a house which is next to that in which I have my home. The 
removal of the family not long afterward first to other lodgings and then 
to their permanent residence in a part of the city to which my duties have 
but seldom carried me, took my little neighbor from my sight and from 
my remembrance. Three years ago last September, a young lady, in the 
full bloom of youth and health and beauty, came to my recitation-room 
to ask my aid in arranging a schedule of her studies. She knew exactly 
what she desired to study. I gave my judgment as to the course of study 
that she ought to pursue, and then I arranged a schedule in accordance 
with her wishes. My further recollection is that she came to me again, 
after the lapse of a year or more, that I might change her program of a 
special course to one which would lead to the degree which, had her life 
and health been spared, she would soon attain, probably with that highest 
distinction which, before any consideration of the matter by the faculty, 
was conceded to her by the justness of her unselfish classmates. I have 
recently learned that Miss Margaret Woolley was my little neighbor of 
twenty years ago. 

Miss Woolley was a member of my department for but one term. I 
can not, therefore, speak of her as can those who had better opportunities 
of knowing her intimately. I observed her, however, as she moved among 
us, and I recognized in her one of those students whose example and 
influence are among the strongest supports of those who are charged with 
the administration of institutions of learning. 

Less than three weeks ago, she began to be missed from her place in 
Morrison Chapel. Except by those who knew the reason of her absence, 
nothing was at first thought of it. She had been in attendance after the 
long Christmas recess, and in her case every other valid explanation of 
absence would have suggested itself before illness could be thought of. 
As her illness grew serious, then dangerous, then sure to have a fatal result, 
anxiety deepened in the minds of her friends in the university and through- 
out the community. There came then a revelation of the strong hold 



ALEXANDER REED MILLIGAN. 287 

which she had on the interest of all who had observed her life. When 
the end came, at dead of night last Thursday, the ^loom that shrouded 
and the grief that broke the hearts of the watchers at her bedside were 
paralleled not even by the almost Cimmerian darkness that had fallen on 
the city without, and by the crushing weight under which limbs of trees 
were breaking and falling with a noise which it was painful to hear. As 
her spirit, obeying the call of the Father that she should come up higher, 
started on its heavenward flight, it left her beautiful face transfigured with 
an angelic serenity which those who saw it can neither soon nor willingly 
forget. Returning light, which revealed the havoc that the storm had 
wrought, brought to the firesides of the city the more distressing intelli- 
gence that Miss Woolley had ceased to live. It is hard to realize that 
she will be seen no more on earth who was so recently with us in the 
strength of youth and in fullness of health, as on the "Old English 
Evening," when answering her pleasant greeting, I spoke to her here for 
what has proved to be the last time. 

The university mourns with the stricken parents. It mourns its first 
loss by death of a young lady matriculate, its first loss by death of a 
member of a graduating class of the College of Liberal Arts. It mourns 
the death of a paragon of young womanhood who adorned every phase 
of life in which she had a part. To such a student living, it delights to give 
its highest undergraduate honors; to such a student dead, it would fain 
point her surviving fellow students for an example of how they must live, 
if they would make the last enemy one of their best friends. There is a 
void here that will long be felt and that can not soon be filled. In the 
last and highest row of seats in one of the chambers of the Italian Parlia- 
ment is a chair in which no member ever sits. The sufficient reason is 
seen in the name that has been placed at the top of the chair, Giuseppe 
Garibaldi. Where he sat no member would now make bold to sit. And 
now again, an experience that has happily been rare in the long history 
of the College of Liberal Arts, has death made a chair vacant here, so to 
remain until the session has, with its joys and its sorrows, merged into 
the irrevocable past. 

Ours is the loss, ours is the grief. Unable to see through the mist 
that obscures our mortal vision, we can not look up to the high reason 
of the Father for taking her, just as the silent stars could not last night 
look down through the sombre clouds which hid from their view the new 
grave, about which monarchs of the forest were, in icy apparel, keeping 
sentry over the young and queenly dead. 

''Non omnis moriar." It is well with her soul. The doubts which 
her strong faith could put aside when she could not solve them, the 
questions, the answers to which are beyond human ken, have all been 
solved, have all been answered. Ah, young ladies of the university, do 
you know into what society your Margaret, that is your pearl, for such 
is the beautiful meaning of her name, has entered? If Rachel wept for 
her children, she may sympathize with your departed sister when she 
compassionates the lot of the friends whom she has left in the land of the 
dying. Perhaps with Miriam your Margaret is singing another, or even 
the old, triumphal ode, "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed 
gloriously." Or she may be engaged in modest converse with Dorcas 
touching the blessedness of a life that is a walk with God in humble faith, 
and that is full of good works and alms-deeds. May it not be that in 
the space which we call to-day she has heard from the Marys who were 



288 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

first at the tomb, or even from the angel himself, the wonderful story 
of the death, the burial and the resurrection? We know not what may 
be in Paradise. Herself may some time delight the mother of her race and 
the mother of her Saviour with a sweet recital of how the death of the 
Son has, in a new time and in a new world, made the condition of woman 
better than it has ever or anywhere been since the loss of Eden. She is 
gone hence into a brightening eternity. Far better than to abide in the 
flesh was it for her to depart, seeing that she is now with Christ. Imagina- 
tion sinks down from sheer inability to conceive the abundant and 
unspeakable revelations which she has already enjoyed. Nor is she yet 
come to the acme of her heavenly life. The lively hope in which she 
rejoiced on earth has been replaced by her present beatific estate in 
Paradise, from which she will rise far higher into likeness to Him whose 
image she will wear when, raised incorruptible and having put on her 
immortality, she has received the amaranthine crown of life and of right- 
eousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give her at that day, 
and not to her only, but unto all them also that love Him and that love His 
appearing. Then beginning her real life, whether in the new heavens or 
on the new earth, she will be come to whatever is transcendently purest 
and loveliest and happiest and worthiest and grandest and divinest and 
best. *'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the 
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love 
Him." Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed well with her soul. 

Daughter, pupil, friend, lady. Christian, whatever thou wert — and 
thou wert in their best meanings all of these — redeemed sanctified per- 
fected, glorified, whatever thou art or wilt be — and thou art or wilt be 
all of these — we would that thy pure spirit might hear the sorrowful 
farewell which we who shall die send to thee who wilt never die, but who 
wilt forever shine as the sun, where cherubim and seraphim adore and 
bum in the immediate presence of the Ineffable Glory. May we, thy 
parents, teachers, companions, friends, so follow here thy beautiful example 
that we may there share thy unending felicity. Farewell, farewell, farewell. 



JAMES TURNER MOREHEAD. 

[James Turner Morehead, Governor, United States Senator, was born in 
BuHitt County, Ky., May 24, 1797; died in Covington, Ky., December 28, 1854; 
educated at Transylvania University; studied law at Russellville, and begaa 
practice at Bowling Green, Ky., in 1818; served several terms in the Ken- 
tucky Legislature; Lieutenant-Governor in 1832; Governor in 1831; elected 
to the United States Senate in 1841, and served a term of six years.] 

DANIEL BOONE. 

An extract from an oration delivered by Governor James T. Morehead 
at Econesboro, Ky., May 25, 1840, in commemoration of the first settle- 
ment in Kentucky. 

The definitive treaty of peace between the United States and Great 
Britain in 1783 confirmed the title of the former to independence, and 
Boone saw the standard of civilization and freedom securely planted in 
the wilderness. He rejoiced in the prospect of being permitted to resume 
the peaceful habits of a hunter and to apply himself to the more profitable 
business of entering and surveying lands, which, next to the defense of 
the frontier, was the principal employment of the Kentucky emigrants 
after the opening of the surveyor's offices in the fall of 1782. Upon the 
establishment of the court of commissioners in 1779, he "laid out the chief 
of his little property to procure land warrants and, having raised about 
twenty thousand dollars in paper money with which he intended to purchase 
them, on his way from Kentucky to Richmond he was robbed of the whole 
and left destitute of the means of procuring more." This heavy misfortune 
did not fall upon himself alone. Large sums had been entrusted to him 
by his friends for similar purposes and the loss was extremely felt. 
"Unacquainted with the niceties of the law, the few lands he was enabled 
afterwards to locate," he informs us, "were, through his ignorance, gener- 
ally swallowed up and lost by better claims." Dissatisfied with these 
impediments to the acquisition of the soil, he left Kentucky and settled 
himself at the mouth of the Kenhawa. It was during his residence there, 
in 1 794, that, for the first time, he was made acquainted with the resources 
of the immense region beyond the Mississippi. The fertile and extensive 
prairies of the far West, abounding with game, awakened his imagination 
to new sources of enjoyment, and "he passed over to the Spanish province 
cf Upper Louisiana." In 1795, he was a wanderer on the banks of the 
Missouri — a voluntary subject of the king of Spain. 

His fame as a pioneer had preceded him — "the reception he met with 
from the Spanish governor was equal to his expectations." Ten thousand 
acres of land were allotted to him for his own use on the Missouri river, 
but, with his habitual indifference to the accumulation of property, he 
neglected to complete the title, "because that could only be done at New 
Orleans." He was immensely honored with the confidence and favor of 
the Governor of Louisiana — accepted the appointment of ''syndic or chief 
of the district of St. Charles," and continued to discharge the duties of 
that office during the remaining period of the Spanish jurisdiction over 
the territory. He hailed with joy the purchase of Louisiana by the United 

18 



290 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

States, ''for it was the country," he declared, "and not the government 
that he had gone in pursuit of," and when the commissioners appointed 
by the Government of the United States met at St. Louis to adjust the 
land titles derived from Spain within the ceded territory, the syndic of 
St. Charles laid his claim before them for confirmation. The usual condi- 
tion of a Spanish grant was an actual residence upon the land. Boone 
had not complied with the condition. He had been assured by the Governor 
that compliance in his case "should be dispensed with in consequence of 
his public trust requiring his residence elsewhere." The fact was made 
known to the commissioners, but, adhering to the strict letter of their 
instructions, they rejected his claim "for want of cultivation and residence." 

Boone appealed to Congress for redress and, contemporaneously with 
his application to that body, he presented a memorial to the General 
Assembly of Kentucky, soliciting their "aid and influence" in its support. 
The memorial contained "an imperfect sketch of his labors" in the wilder- 
ness, commencing with the year 1769, "and of his claims to the remem- 
brance of his country in general." He spoke of his struggles in the fatat 
lands which were dyed with the blood of early settlers amongst whom 
were some of his dearest connections. "The history of the settlement 
of the Western country," he said, "was his history." He alluded to the 
"love of discovery and adventure" which had induced him to expatriate 
himself ^'under an assurance of the Governor residing at St. Louis that 
ample portions of land should be given to him and to his family." He 
mentioned the allotment of the land to him, his failure to consummate 
the title and his unsuccessful application to the commissioners of the 
United States. ''Of the vast extent of country," which he had discovered 
and explored, "he was unable to call a single acre his own," and "he had 
laid his case before Congress. Your memorialist," he said, "can not but 
feel, so long as feeling remains, that he has a just claim upon his country 
for land to live on and to transmit to his children after him. He can not 
help, on an occasion like this, but look toward Kentucky. From a small 
acorn she has become a mighty oak, furnishing shelter to upwards of four 
hundred thousand souls. Very different is her appearance now from the 
time when your memorialist, with his little band, began to fell the forest 
and construct the rude fortification at Boonesboro." The venerable 
pioneer did not look toward Kentucky in vain. The memorial was referred 
to a committee of the Senate, consisting of Messrs. Y. Ewing, Hopkins, 
Caldwell, Southgate, Bullock and Walker, and the committee reported 
the following preamble and resolutions, which passed, without a division, 
through both branches of the Legislature : 

"The committee to whom was referred the memorial of Daniel Boone 
beg leave to recommend the following resolution to be adopted : 

"The Legislature of Kentucky, taking into view the many eminent 
services rendered by Colonel Boone in exploring and settling the western 
country, from which great advantages have resulted not only to this State, 
but to his country in general; and that from circumstances over which he 
had no control, he is now reduced to poverty — not having, so far as appears, 
an acre of land out of the vast territory he has been a great instrument 
in peopling — ^believing, also, that it is as unjust as it is impolitic that useful 
enterprise and eminent services should go unrewarded by a Government 
where merit confers the only distinction, and having sufficient reason to 
believe that a grant of ten thousand acres of land, which he claims in 



JAMES TURNER MOREHEAD. 291 

Upper Louisiana, would have been confirmed by th^ Spanish government, 
had not said territory passed, by cession, into the hands of the general 
Government ; wherefore, 

"Resolved by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Ken- 
tucky, That our Senators in Congress be requested to make use of their 
exertions to procure a grant of land in said territory to said Boone, either 
the ten thousand acres to which he appears to have an equitable claim, 
from the grounds set forth to this Legislature, by way of confirmation, or 
to such quantity, in such place, as shall be deemed most advisable by way 
cf donation." 

On the tenth day of February, 1814, the Congress of the United States 
confirmed his title "to a thousand acres of the land claimed by him in virtue 
of a concession made to him under the Spanish grant, bearing date on the 
twenty-eighth of January, 1798." 

Boone was now far advanced in years. The remainder of his life was 
devoted to the society of his children and the employments of the chase — 
to the latter, especially. When age had enfeebled the energies of his once 
athletic frame, he would wander, twice a year, into the remotest wilderness 
he could reach, employing a companion, whom he bound by a written 
contract, to take care of him, and bring him home alive or dead. In 
April, 1816, he made such an excursion to Fort Osage, a hundred miles be- 
yond the place of his residence and, having spent a fortnight there, he set off 
on a journey to the river Platte. Three years thereafter, a patriotic solici- 
tude to preserve his portrait, prompted a distinguished American artist to 
visit him at his dwelling near the Missouri river, and from him I have 
received the following particulars. He found him in a small rude cabin, 
indisposed and reclining on his bed. A slice from the loin of a buck, twisted 
around the rammer of his rifle within reach of him as he lay, was roasting 
before the fire. Several other cabins, arranged in the form of a parallelo- 
gram, marked the spot of a dilapidated station. They were occupied by 
the descendants of the pioneer. Here he lived in the midst of his posterity. 
His withered energies and locks of snow indicated that the sources of exist- 
ence were nearly exhausted. On the 26th of September, 1820, at the 
Charette village, he breathed his last. The Legislature of Missouri was in 
session at St. Louis when the event was announced. A resolution was 
immediately passed that, in respect for his memory, the members would 
wear the usual badge of mourning for twenty days, and an adjournment 
was voted for that day. 

The life of Daniel Boone is a forcible example of the powerful influ- 
ence which a single absorbing passion exerts over the destiny of an 
individual. Born with no endowments of intellect to distinguish him from 
the crowd of ordinary men, and possessing no other acquirements than 
a very common education bestowed, he was enabled, nevertheless, to 
maintain, throughout a long and useful career, a conspicuous rank among the 
most distinguished of his contemporaries, and the testimonials of the public 
gratitude and respect with which he was honored after his death were such 
as are never awarded by an intelligent people to the undeserving. In his 
narrative, dictated to Filson in 1784, he described himself as "an instru- 
ment ordained to settle the wilderness." There are certainly passages in 
his history corroborative of this conclusion. His preservation during a 
solitary sojournment of three months in the wilderness, the marked for- 
bearance and lenity of the savages toward him, especially on the last 
occasion of his being their prisoner, his escape at a most important juncture 



292 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

for the defense of his station, would seem to indicate the interposition of 
a superior agency in his behalf. In 1778, when such formidable prepara- 
tions were making at the old town of Chillicothe for the invasion of 
Kentucky, his seasonable return to Boonesboro saved the inhabitants 
from the grasp of the savages, and if Boonesboro had fallen, little 
doubt can be entertained that every station on the frontier would have 
shared its fate. But it is needless to speculate upon a subject about which 
contradictory opinions may be formed. There are those who will coincide 
with the pioneer in the judgment which he has passed on his own pre- 
tensions. His instrumentality in the settlement of the wilderness, great 
and efficacious as it most unquestionably was, may be traced to other and 
more proximate causes having their origin in the elements of his own 
peculiar character. He came originally to the wilderness, not to settle 
and subdue it, but to gratify an inordinate passion for adventure and dis- 
covery — ^to hunt the deer and buflfalo, to roam through the woods, to 
admire the "beauties of Nature," in a word, to enjoy the lonely pastimes 
of a hunter's life, remote from the society of his fellowmen. He had 
heard with admiration and delight Finley's description of the ^^country of 
Kentucke" and, high as were his expectations, he found it "a second para- 
dise." Its lofty forests, its noble rivers, its picturesque scenery, its 
beautiful valleys, but, above all, the plentifulness of ''beasts of every 
American kind," these were the attractions that brought him to it. He 
came, therefore, not to establish the foundations of a great State, nor to 
extend the empire of civilization, but because it was a wilderness, and such 
a wilderness as realized, in its adaptation to his inclinations and habits, the 
brightest visions of his fancy. Having, for reasons like these, chosen it 
for his abode, nothing was more natural than that he should be willing 
to risk much to defend it; and the peculiar warfare by which the settle- 
ments were to be preserved put in requisition precisely such powers of 
mind and body as those that he possessed. He united, in an eminent 
degree, the qualities of shrewdness, caution and courage with uncommon 
muscular strength. He was seldom taken by surprise — he never shrunk 
from danger, nor cowered beneath the pressure of exposure and fatigue. 
In every emergency he was a safe guide and a wise counsellor, because 
his movements were conducted with the utmost circumspection and his 
judgment and penetration were proverbially accurate. Powerless to orig- 
inate plans on a larger scale, no individual among the pioneers could execute, 
with more efficiency and success, the designs of others. He took the lead 
in no expedition against the savages, he disclosed no liberal and enlarged 
views of policy for the protection of the stations, and yet it is not assuming 
too much to say that, without him, in all probability, the settlements could 
not have been upheld, and the conquest of Kentucky might have been 
reserved for the emigrants of the nineteenth century. 

With all his qualities as an antagonist of the red man, Boone was no 
lover of war. He took no delight in the glory of a conqueror. If he 
idolized his rifle, it was because it contributed to the enjoyment of his 
darling pastimes — not because it was an instrument for shedding blood. 
His character, on the contrary, was pacific. But, at the same time, it was 
unsocial. He had few of the sympathies that bind men and families 
together and consecrate the relations of society. During two whole years, 
he abandoned his family for no other purpose than to amuse himself in 
the wilderness. Yet he was not an unkind husband; on one occasion, we 
know, he endangered his own to save the life of his son ; and I am not aware 



JAMES TURNER MOREHE AD. 293 

that he was ever suspected of treachery in his friendships. At the period 
of his greatest vigor and usefulness, he was remarkable for his taciturnity, 
but, as he grew older, he became an agreeable companion, remembering 
with distinctness remote events, especially those with which he was con- 
nected and dwelling upon them with manifest satisfaction. His manners 
were simple and unobtrusive, exem.pt from the rudeness characteristic of 
the backwoodsman. In his person there was nothing peculiarly striking. 
He was five feet, ten inches in height, and of robust and powerful pro- 
portions. His countenance was -mild and contemplative, indicating a frame 
of mind altogether different from the restlessness and activity that dis- 
tinguished him. His ordinary habiliments were those of a hunter — a hunt- 
ing shirt and moccasins uniformly composing a part of them. Throughout 
his life, he was careless of his pecuniary interests. The loss of his lands 
in Kentucky was chiefly attributable to inattention. When he emigrated 
to Louisiana, he omitted to secure a title to a princely estate on the Missouri 
because it would have cost him the trouble of a trip to New Orleans. He 
would have traveled a much greater distance to indulge his cherished 
propensities as an adventurer and a hunter. He died, as he had lived, in 
a cabin, and perhaps his trusty rifle was the most valuable of his chattels. 
Such was the man to whom has been assigned the principal merit of 
the discovery of Kentucky and who filled a large space in the eyes of 
America and Europe. Resting on the solid advantage of his services to 
his country, his fame will survive when the achievements of men greatly 
his superiors in rank and intellect will be forgotten. 



THOMAS Z. MORROW. 

[Thomas Z. Morrow, Lawyer, Somerset, Ky., was born in Flemingsburg, 
Ky., September 3, 1835; graduate of Center College, 1855, and of Transyl- 
vania Law Schools, 1856; County Attorney of Pulaski County, Ky., 1858; Mem- 
ber of Kentucky Legislature 1861; Lieutenant-Colonel 32d Kentucky (U. S.) 
Infantry 1862; State Senator 1865; Assessor Internal Revenue 1866; Dele- 
gate National Republican Convention 1876; Republican candidate for Gov- 
ernor 1883; Chairman Republican State Central Committee 1884; Depart- 
ment Commander G. A. R. Kentucky, 1886; Judge 8th and 28th Judicial Dis- 
tricts of Kentucky 1886 to 1904.] 

MEMORIAL DAY. 

An address delivered at the decoration of graves of Federal soldiers in 
Cave Hill cemetery, Louisville, Ky., May 30, 1885. 

The desire for decent sepulture springs instinct in the human heart; 
the thought that the body after death may rot uncoffined is a terror. 

To deposit tenderly, carefully and lovingly into Mother Earth the 
corpses of those who in life were near and dear has been characteristic of 
the noble and good in every age, in every clime. To neglect or rudely 
refuse this tender of respect, or boldly oflfer an insult to the person of 
the dead is inhuman and savage. The Roman daughter who drove her 
fierce chariot over the prostrate form of a murdered father and ensan- 
guined its shining wheels in his blood, presents a picture at once unnatural 
and repulsive. The dogs eating the painted Jezebel, though a king's 
daughter, that none could be found to bury her, or to say this is Jezebel, 
marks in high degree the divine displeasure. The simple, yet exceedingly 
beautiful, manner in which the blessed Master was laid away in the new 
tomb of Joseph is in sharp contrast. 

Care as to the disposition of the body after death occupies no small 
share of the thoughts of the living, the time, place and manner of interment 
not infrequently being uppermost in the minds of the dying. The prom- 
inent place given to this idea, in wills and testaments, in the last words 
cf great and small, attests its universality. Bury me by moonlight, at 
early mom, at evening's shade, at midnight's solemn hour, at high noon, 
have each been favorite selections as to time; by the sea shore, in mid 
ocean, on the battlefield, beneath the branches of the homestead oak, by 
husband, by wife, as to place. ''Inter me with honors of war," is the request 
cf one — "Don't let the awkward squad fire over my grave" is the entreaty 
of another. One bespeaks a plain, unostentatious funeral; another would 
have ceremonies worthy of his deeds and fame. 

The performance of the last sad offices of friend, relative or stranger, 
in accordance with his wishes, is the plain duty the living owe to the dead. 
Only the unfeeling fail in compliance. To adorn, to cherish, to protect, 
the spot dedicated to the dead has, from the earliest times, been the concern 
of individuals, communities, States and nations, whether that spot be where 
the "rude forefathers Df the hamlet sleep" or v/here has decayed what 
was once a Caesar, or a Virgil, a Demosthenes or an Alexander, a Pitt 
or a Wellington, an Adams or a Washington. Father and mother plant the 
rose or train the honeysuckle over the grave of the first bom of the 
household. A modest tablet locates the resting place of the village bene- 



THOMAS Z. MORROW. 296 

factor. States and nations rear the cloud-piercing column to testify admira- 
tion for and to perpetuate the memory of warrior, statesman and philan- 
thropist. The honors and affections of republics and empires have most 
generally been bestowed on those who have ''towered above or subdued 
mankind," to the neglect of the humbler yet equally meritorious instru- 
ments in the achievements of the renown. The name of the captain, not 
the private, the commander, not the seaman, is inscribed on the marble 
plinth. 

To the credit of Kentucky — first born of the Union — ^be it remembered 
that in the burial of her choice dead, and in the inscription on her State 
monument, she carried into practice the sentiment contained in her Bill of 
Rights — "that all freemen are equal." The white shaft erected on the 
heights, overlooking alike her namesake river and her capital, and at whose 
base repose in equal honor epaulet, chevron and unmarked shoulder, bears 
upon its polished surface these words, as eloquent as they are appropriate: 

''Kentucky has erected this column in gratitude equally to her officers 
and soldiers. The principal battles and campaigns in which her sons devoted 
their lives to their country are inscribed on the bands, and beneath the same 
the names of the officers who fell in them. The names of her soldiers 
who died for their country are too numerous to be inscribed on any 
column." 

The United States, after the war in defense of the Union, had proved 
a success, imitating the generous, just and exactly proportioned idea of 
our mother Commonwealth, conceived and carried into execution the 
grander and more extensive thought of gathering for burial the remains of 
all her soldiers who had been cut down either by disease or wound and 
interring them in grounds under the exclusive care and protection of the 
Federal Government. As the sequence of that humane conception, the 
face of the country from Maine to Texas, from San Francisco to Washing- 
ton, is^ at intervals, dotted with national cemeteries. These, like Kentucky's 
battle monument, have been furnished in gratitude equally to officer and 
soldier and in them lie, in undistinguished honor, general and private, 
admiral and sailor. The North, the South, the East and the West, the 
highway and lane, woodland and pasture, mountain and meadow, stream 
and streamlet, have all been forced to yield up their dead to find a more 
suitable repository on their country's soil, where over their graves the 
flag they loved so well might perpetually float. In each of them mingle 
the ashes of soldiers from all the States, thus constituting the soil in a pre- 
eminent degree the soil -of the nation. This so appropriate recognition of 
a common merit touches a responsive chord in every heart. "The high 
and lifted up" did not need this; the world's great have always been rememi- 
bered in an enduring form. "Westminster Abbey or a peerage" was the 
exclamation of the heroic Nelson when about to engage the enemy; he 
sleeps in St. Paul's Cathedral and a tablet in brass on the deck of his 
ship, the Victory, tells that "Here Nelson fell." The first consul received 
his apotheosis in the magnificent splendor with which his remains were 
transferred from St. Helena's rock and laid to rest beneath the dome of 
the Invalides. Here all are Napoleons, all Nelsons. 

Our Government in deciding that the bones of her brave defenders 
should not whiten the plains has protected the ashes of him who was once 
his country's soldier from every rude, from every unhallowed touch. This 
beneficent action on the part of the representatives of the people in 
providing these "cities of the dead" has met the cordial approval of the 



29« KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

people themselves and now, by common consent, on land and sea, wherever 
our flag is thrown to the breeze or our drum beats, this is "Memorial Day." 
We are here to strew with flowers and evergreens the graves of our 
dead heroes and by this token perform our part in transmitting as worthy 
of grateful remembrance their memories to coming generations. The task 
allotted me in this program is, indeed, a pleasing one, for never was a 
tribute of praise, gratitude and love to be bestowed on a nobler, truer or 
wiser band of men than those who, "after life's fitful fever," sleep here 
arid elsewhere under the national sod. The soldiers whose deeds and 
triumphs are now being rehearsed and commemorated the country round 
were, when in the flesh, the peers of the proudest that ever laid down a 
life on any stricken field of battle; the cause in which they fighting fell 
has not been surpassed by any for which patriot blood has flowed. The 
ground in which they await the archangel's call is hallowed ground. 

"What hallows ground where heroes sleep? 
*Tis not the sculptured pile you heap, 
Or dews that heavens far distant weep. 

Their turf may bloom, 
Or genii twine beneath the deep 

Their coral tomb. 
But strew his ashes to the wind 
Whose sword or voice has saved mankind, 
And is he dead whose glorious mind. 

Lifts them on high? 
To live in hearts we leave behind 

Is not to die. 
•• Is it death to fall for Freedom's right? 

He's dead alone that lacks her light. 
And murder sullies in Heaven's sight 

The sword he draws; 
What can alone ennoble fight? 

A noble cause." 

That noble cause these men had ; that ennobled fight these men fought. 
Whether there be taken into the account the cause itself, the success that 
attended it, the more than generous terms upon which it was closed, or 
all combined, the record of warfare, ancient or modern, may safely be 
challenged to produce a single example exceeding in one or all of these 
tests the defensive warfare carried on by the citizens and citizen soldiery 
of the American Union for its preservation against its only real enemy- 
Disintegration. The struggle through which our people passed is remark- 
able, not alone for the skill with which battalions were maneuvered and 
battles won, but as well for the brain power and patriotism displayed by all 
classes in comprehending, thoroughly grasping and tenaciously adhering 
to the paramount question of the hour. Amid the clash of arms and the 
conflict of opinions, the nation moved forward in a direct line, with an 
eye single to the accomplishment of the one purpose that overshadowed 
all others — the integrity, the indivisibility of the union of these States. 
From this pole star no sophistry could persuade, no violence drive the 
Union-loving masses. The readiness with which the majority of the people 
laid aside partisan principles and the celerity with which warring factions 
were dissolved into consistent, harmonious forces will ever be a matter 
cf wonder and astonishment. The alacrity with which the friends of the 
country fell into ranks has scarcely a parallel. The brilliant rhetoric of 
Willard, uttered only a year previous, when the real test came, limped and 
halted far in the rear of the actual fact. In ringing tones he declared : 



THOMAS Z. MORROW, 297 

"If the Union shall be assailed from within or from without, by foreign 
or domestic foe, I can place the stars and stripes in the hands of the most 
timid maiden in Indiana, and more men will rally to its rescue than followed 
Peter the Hermit to the Crusades." 

The shot that struck Sumter gave, in the rebound, a deadly blow to 
most of the party spirit that still lingered in the adhering States. The 
response in men and money to the President's proclamation was patriotic 
in the highest degree. Both were furnished without stint. The enthusiasm 
knew no bounds. "We are coming, Father Abraham, five hundred thou- 
sand strong" was truth, not fiction, prose not poetry, accuracy not exagger- 
ation. The roar of that cannon awakened the latent valor of the people 
and was the opening note of a conflict of arms the most gigantic. It was 
not Greek meeting Greek ; it was Americans meeting Americans, and it can 
truthfully be affirmed that, on every field of carnage, the Blue and the 
Gray, each, realized to the fullest extent 

"The stern joy that warriors feel, 
In foemen worthy of their steed." 

As was to be expected with such combatants, it was war, not child's 
play; skillful, violent, death-dealing war, destroying property, making 
children orphans and wives widows. For four years, the din of battle 
was carried on every breeze; the battle scale stood long in equipoise, the 
bird of victory perched first on one standard, then on the other, success 
on one side alternating with success on the other, until the grand finale 
was reached, and the silent soldier (God grant that the days and years 
of his pilgrimage may be long in the land) stood the hero of Appomattox. 
Then the sound of war was heard no more in all the land; Peace spread 
wide and free her snowy wings; the Union was intact; the late foes clasped 
hands as brothers, friends, countrymen. The fruits of the success obtained 
by the suffering, the endurance, the valor, aye, by the heart's blood of 
those who have here their six feet of earth, inured in equal proportion to 
victor and vanquished, triumph and defeat united, the beaten were the 
equals of those who received the submission. We are here to-day to do 
honor to the men who brought about these results, to claim them as our 
own, to hail them as noblest and best of conquerors. Other conquerors 
demanded ransom^ from the captives; these gave them gifts. Others trod 
upon the prisoners' necks; these lifted them as high as their own breasts. 
Others confiscated the property of the fallen; these gave credit and threw 
open every avenue of trade. While we lavish these remarks of respect* 
for our own dead, we cast no reflection on the dust or memory of those 
who fought us and were conquered. The annual gathering of surviving 
Federal soldiers to honor their deceased comrades means no aspersion of 
the motives of those who died for what seemed to them to be the right. 
We are here because these dead saw !he right as we saw it, and because 
they were right, everlastingly right. Conceding to those who followed the 
fortunes of the justly fated Confederacy motives as pure as our own, 
it must be claimed for the Unionist that he had the better head, the wiser 
foresight, the deeper wisdom, the truer conception of the mighty interests 
involved ; that he thought better for the Confederate than did the Confed- 
erate for himself and his posterity. Each day succeeding the surrender 
has been a witness vindicating the truth of this proposition ; that vindication 
will grow and grow, strengthen and strengthen as star after star shall be 
added to the emblem of the nation's glory and power. 



298 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

The lapse of years, social and business relations, political affinities and 
marital ties have effaced or are fast effacing the animosities engendered by 
the collision. The language of envenomed invective has been superseded by 
words of moderation; scarcely a scar remains. The lexicon of peace has 
taken the place of the war-cry. "Lincoln hireling" and ^'traitor" no longer 
belong to the vocabulary of discussion. At this distance from the conflict, 
it may be truthfully said that our erring brethren of the South are not 
to be attainted with treason nor their conduct condoned on the principles 
of 'charity. They are to be treated with strict fairness, with justice and 
"naught to set down in malice against them." The war had to be, and we 
are the stronger and better from having had it ; it has proved a blessing in 
disguise. For one, I have now no disposition to quarrel with those whose 
actions had it determined by a resort to the last earthly argument that 
this is a nation, not a Confederacy of States — a free Government, not half 
free, half slave. 

The blood of the Union soldier was not shed in vain; nor did it fall 
on sterile soil. The harvest is already an hundred fold, and it would 
stretch the imagination to conceive what it will be at no remote period. 
If the past years of prosperity be an index of the future, the maintenance 
of i^ae Union and the destruction of human chattelism was cheaply earned 
at the expense of every life lost and every dollar expended. 

True measurement, by an impartial standard, will be meted out to the 
actors in the late civil strife by the student of history; and to those who 
cast their lot on the side of the Union will be awarded the higher meed 
of praise. As respects fidelity to convictions, the readiness and capacity 
to endure hardships, the courage to make the charge, the steadiness in 
receiving it, in general devotion to liberty, equal honors will be granted 
to the opposing forces by him who shall truly write of these things when 
those who performed them shall have passed away. Nay, more, the day 
may not be far distant when the question as to who won the first day's 
fighting at Old Shiloh church shall be void of interest, save as a problem 
in military science, the deeds of valor on both sides having become the 
common and equal heritage of an hundred millions of prosperous American 
freemen. The question as to which ought to have won on the issues 
involved in that fight must be decided for the friends of the old flag. In 
history the Federal soldier must stand highest, not alone because he came 
out of the contest triumphant, crowned with laurels, but because time has 
shown and will continue to show that he deserved success. The appeal 
made on a spot adjacent to this, a few years since, by one of the most 
gifted of living Confederates (my classmate and friend, Colonel W. C. P. 
Breckinridge), to God and history in vindication of that cause, must be 
determined against him and it. There is but one side to this question ; there 
i? not even debatable ground upon which to maintain a respectable footing. 
The ranks of those coinciding with the views of the distinguished soldier, 
scholar and orator whom I have quoted are fast being depleted to swell 
the columns of those who, after twenty years' contrast of fact against 
theory, can and do say : "We are glad that we were beaten." 

The death-bed of the last survivor who fought for the "Bonnie Blue 
Flag" will be the death-bed of its last advocate. The heroism in battle, 
the steadfastness in opinion, the knightly devotion exhibited by the boys 
in gray will always find for them admirers, but this will only serve 

"To point a moral or adorn a tale." 



THOMAS Z. MORROW . 299 

None of the reasons upon which a dissolution of the Union was urged 
will, for a moment, stand before the scrutinizing eye of the candid historian, 
whether based on slavery, nullification, secession or revolution. There will 
be, and there should be, liberal allowances for those who believed in and 
acted upon these untenable theories, but there can be no justification of 
the theories themselves. The doctrine of nullification is damnable on the 
face of it. Revolution by war can be justified only by the "high mandate 
of an imperative necessity." That such necessity did not exist in 1861 
is patent to even the most casual observer of events. No right of the 
South or of any of the States had been invaded ; no oppression was threat- 
ened; there was no well-grounded apprehension that any would be 
attempted. The President, himself a man of Southern birth and parentage, 
was the most just of men and possessed of as kindly a nature as any in 
whom the breath of life was ever breathed. From him danger was not 
to have been anticipated. Every square inch of all the territories was open 
to the spread 'of slavery. The party temporarily in control of the adminis- 
tration of the Government was, on the popular vote, more than a million 
in the minority. The protection to be aflforded by the majority united 
was ample for any and every emergency. Besides, the platform upon 
which power had been obtained upon the vital subject — Home Rule — ^gave 
forth no uncertain sound. It declared "the right of each State to order and 
control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclu- 
sively, to be essential to that balance of power upon which the perfection 
and endurance of our political fabric depends." 

The right of a State to peaceably secede from the Union at its own 
will and pleasure has no warrant anywhere. The motion that such a 
secession could at that time, or at any time, be effected seems to fall but 
little short of sheer madness. Many of the wisest and most patriotic of 
American statesmen had in arguments that amounted to demonstrations 
shown, time and again, its utter impracticability, if not folly. The most 
notable example is that of the sage of Marshfield, whose words, read now, 
in the light of subsequent events, seem prophetic. Mr. Webster, in that 
grand appeal made in the Senate in 1850, said: "Peaceable secession! 
Mr. President, your eyes and mine are never destined to see that miracle. 
There can be no such thing as peaceable secession. It is an utter impossi- 
bility. Disruption must produce such a war as may not be described in 
its two-fold character." How true, and yet this truth is not more palpable 
i:ow than it was when Yancey "fired the Southern heart and precipitated 
the cotton States into rebellion." 

Slavery, which the able and honorable Vice-President Df the Confederacy 
declared was the corner-stone of the new government and its crowning 
excellence, is now on all hands disavowed as the cause of the quarrel. It 
is with unanimity admitted to have been unworthy the expenditure of a 
single shekel or the loss of a single ounce of blood in its defense. A foul 
stain on the national escutcheon, a high crime against nature and religion. 
it has utterly perished. The statesman who would even suggest its restora- 
tion in this nation would ''be bolder than he who stole the fire from heaven" 
and destined to a more infamous immortality than he who applied the torch 
to the temple. 

All these heresies have met a doom as well deserved as that of any 
criminal decreed to suffer the extreme of human punishment. Let us hope 
that as to each it may be said, 



300 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

"Safe in a ditch it bides, 
With twenty trenched gashes on its head 
The least a death to nature." 

This has been the work of the men whose death we mourn, whose 
memories we revere, whose course we endorse. Their account is closed, 
their fame secure. Time, disease and wounds are fast thinning the ranks 
of the survivors of the conflict. Comrade after comrade has found the 
end of the path that leads to the grave. Their virtues have been extolled 
by abler tongues than mine; they need no eulogy from me. While we 
mourn for the dead, we are not unmindful of the living. We refrain from 
plaudits to them only because this day is sacred to those who have gone 
before. Praise of those who have not passed over would be out of place. 

Leaving the dead past behind us, we turn joyously, proudly, hopefully 
to the grand future which lies so invitingly before us. The spirit of the 
Crittenden resolutions have been faithfully kept; there has been no con- 
quest, no subjugation; the States have been restored with all their rights 
unimpaired. The pleading voice of him whose name and fame will outlive 
the stars has, at last, swept over the responsive strings of the national 
heart. To-day we are friends, not enemies. ^The mystic chords of 
memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living 
hearth and hearthstone in all this broad land has been touched by the 
better angel of our nature" and we again "swell the chorus of the Union." 

Looking down the stream of Time, I see this the grandest of all nations, 
indeed, the nation of the earth, its liberties preserved, its Constitution 
maintained; its laws, equal and just, obeyed; its unity incapable of disso- 
lution ; the foe of despotism, the hope, the succor of those struggling to be 
free. I see not one class but all our posterity basking in the sunshine of 
this glory. I see the sections vieing with each other as to which shall do 
most to lift the nation on high. I see the dear, dear old flag, with its hues 
as brilliant and fresh as in the days of its youth, still an incentive and an 
inspiration. I see the affairs of the Government ably and honestly admin- 
istered; its battles on land and sea fought by men in whose veins flow in 
mingled currents the blood of Grant and Lee, of Jackson and Thomas, 
of Rousseau and Breckinridge, of Hanson and Kelly, of Landrum and 
Grigsby, of Morgan and Wolford. Finally, on a day resembling this, I 
see a speaker standing in the presence of the living and the dead, and stand- 
ing by the graves of heroes who had won immortal honor on the crest of 
a foreign foe, close an address as I now close this, in the beautiful language 
of an American song writer: 

"The wine cup, the wine cup, bring hither, 

And fill it, ye true, to the brim. 
May the laurels you have won never wither. 

Nor the star of your glory grow dim. 
May our services united ne'er sever. 

But they to their colors prove true. 
Our army and navy forever, 

Three cheers for the red, white and blue." 



JAMES H. MULLIGAN. 

[James H. Mulligan, Lawyer, Lexington, Ky., was born in Lexington, 
Ky., November 21, 1844; educated in Transylvania High School, Lexington, 
finishing at St. Mary's College, Montreal, Canada, after spending one year 
at the Jesuit's College, Vannes, France; graduated from Kentucky Univers- 
ity law school in 1869; entered into the practice of law in partnership with 
the late General John B. Huston, at Lexington; was repeatedly and continuous- 
ly a member of the House of the Kentucky Legislature, and for one term repre 
sented Fayette County in the Senate; Consul-General of the United States 
to the Kingdom of Samoa from June, 1894, to early part of 1896.] 

NOMINATING HON. JOHN G. CARLISLE FOR THE UNITED 
STATES SENATORSHIP. 

A speech delivered before the Democratic caucus of the two Houses 
of the General Assembly of Kentucky, at Frankfort, Tuesday, May 13, 1890. 

We are to-night resting under the shadow of a sorrow as great as it 
was unexpected. We are sensible that the shade of the wing of the dark 
angel is yet upon us — that a mighty leader has fallen. Scarce recovered 
from the shock, and with tears undried, the stern requirements 'of the law, 
which regard only the living, demand that, while we may with one hand 
place the wreath of cypress upon the new grave, with the other we shall 
weave the wreath of laurel to crown the victor in the contest that shall 
determine who shall take his place. 

Who shall take his place ? I repeat, for now, even after the few days 
that have afforded opportunity for reflection, we are still, in recovered 
calm and control, doubtful as at first, though any one of many might take 
his place, whether, indeed, one can be found who shall fill it. 

We are met under the gaze of interested millions ; the eyes of the nation 
are fixed upon the vacant chair, draped in the sombre hue of mourning; 
and, at this perilous moment, when silently, but none the less intensely, 
every chord and fiber of our free institutions — ^the very flag of freedom 
itself — is straining under the greatest tension ever placed upon it, none the 
less dangerous and severe because as yet unmarked by popular outbreak, 
by open clash or conflict, we are met to counsel together, that wisdom 
may spring from counsel and guide us, as far as may be, in the task of 
finding a successor fitted to take his place. And so it is — ^the eternal mys- 
tery rolls on; the king is dead; "long live the king!" — ^not who shall wear, 
that is not the question, but who shall wear, to his country's good, the 
spotless toga of James B. Beck? 

The times are strangely out of joint. The very excess of liberty 
seems to be on the verge of defeating her holiest ends; the very freedom 
cf the franchise seems to make it an easy prey to combined greed; the 
camp-fires of seventy-six emit but a pale and fitful gleam ; the national air 
of the day is the jingle of dollars; the one topic of the hour is money, 
money — nothing but money. Capital piles on capital, in combination 
reaching Alpine heights, crushing the masses in its avalanches, chilling and 
impoverishing the multitude beneath its dark and freezing shade; the 
shadow of the custom-house falls across every threshold, darkening every 



802 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

fireside; wealth accrues to but few, and then in unnatural proportion; the 
people, as in classic times, are amused by the inspiring prosperity of the 
few and the specious parade of progress, and, while they sullenly look on, 
are assured that all this gallant parade, decked out in so much bravery, is 
solely for their benefit. 

The fields are fruitful, but no riches come to the husbandman; the 
merchant buys and sells, but no profit remains; the wage-earner and the 
artisan builds and adorns palaces in unwonted number, but finds his own 
home pinched enough and in his pocket no accumulations. The rich grow 
richer and the poor become poorer; the nation trembles under the tread 
of discontented thousands; strikes are the order of the day. The combine, 
the tRist, the enthroned vampire of protection, drawing through a hidden 
taxation, drains the country and its virgin fruitfulness to a few centers. 
Abandoning competition with the world, we are shut up to afford an 
enforced field of profit wrung from our own people. Still the cant of 
development and the strikes go on. The people ask for bread and a 
millionaire Congress gives them a stone with vast parade; and so, with all 
the relations of trade, purposely disarranged and hidden in a cloud of 
sophistry, we find ourselves at the close of a century of experimental, con- 
stitutional government with the gravest questions before us and the times, 
in all things, strangely out of joint. 

This condition will not continue; the end will come, of course, but 
how? There lies the danger; the end may not come until freedom shall 
have perished ; or, in some desperate struggle for reform, the outburst may 
carry our institutions down to ruin. To avert these dangers by adjusting 
conflicting interests, to impose a limit on self-interest without destroying 
the liberty of the citizen, and yet preserve all the balances of government, 
i: the problem engaging the thinker of the day and demanding the highest 
phase of philosophic statesmanship in its broadest meaning. A statesman 
alone shall meet these dangers before it is too late, meet them half way 
and disarm them, if they be met at all. 

I have not overdrawn the picture. This is not the moment for experi- 
ment; the occasion demands not the politician, but the statesman; this is 
not the time nor the hour to retire the great leader who gave the national 
Democracy its one victory in a quarter of a century. 

So surrounded, we rest under a solemn responsibility. We must act 
upon our best judgment; no canvass has given us access to the voice of 
the people. The issue is new and unexpected. As I believe in the mercy 
of God, so do I believe that the result of this caucus will, in no little 
measure, affect not alone the immediate welfare of the country at large, but 
that of generations yet unborn. We are, by our action, to affect not merely 
only our own people, but those of the republic ; we are to select a Senator 
not simply to represent Kentucky, but the Democracy of the Union as 
well. It is fortunate, in this exigency, that Kentucky, who has ever been 
able to hold her place in the front rank, is again able to furnish a man up 
to the fullest requirements of the hour; one to whom the eyes of the 
country turn as by common consent; one demanded by the Democratic 
press of the Union; one demanded by the Democracy of the country; one 
demanded by the peril of free government; one long recognized as the 
leader; one who is the very personification of government for the many, 
and of tariff reform ; the one great master of the one vital question of the 
day; one so recognized and commanding an absolute confidence in Maine 



JAMES H. MULLIGAN . 803 

as in Florida, in California or Nebraska as in Virginia, in New York as 
in Kentucky. That man is John G. Carlisle. 

It is a part of the very recent political history of the country that 
tells us that Mr. Morrison, who was the supporter of the gentleman whom 
I have just named in the great movement for tariff reform, was over- 
whelmed when he presented himself for re-election, and it was immediately 
heralded over the country that even the fertile prairies of the great West 
had declared thus emphatically in favor of protection; that when the 
Democratic administration under Mr. Cleveland, although supported by a 
great popular majority, was hurled from power by the operation of our 
curiously complex election system, that the country had placed its con- 
demnation upon the movement for tariiT reform. These were but the 
pupils of Mr. Carlisle; and now if, before a Kentucky Legislature, this 
representative and type of a Kentucky idea, this man who, as I speak the 
simple truth and as you know, put aside the senatorship when it was 
offered to him, for the simple reason that duty demanded he should remain 
in the House — ^this man who, did he live three hundred yards north of 
the spot where are his hearth and rooftree, would be the next Democratic 
candidate for President — if he be humiliated thus in defeat, what man 
shall be bold enough to deny that even Kentucky, land of legend and 
heroes, has, abandoning her past, set her seal of condemnation upon her 
own son and all that he best represents? 

And yet there are those who have the temerity to say that this man — 
this man who was first to recognize and grapple the monstrous wrong of 
legalized robbery, who, in spite of the dismay and remonstrance of all 
mere politicians, became its apostle who brought the American Democracy 
solidly to its support through the power of his intellect and the simple 
sincerity of his faith; this man who made a Democratic President possible; 
this man who has even forced the Republican party and its administration 
into a pretense of justice to the people, that this man's brow should be 
marked in his own home with the asHes of defeat, because, as the leader 
of the House, he can not be spared. Out upon such hypocrisy! This 
exposes to itself the insincerity of those who utter it. No reason is neces- 
sary, no excuse can be demanded. This is to proclaim that mediocrity is 
to be rewarded above intellect; that genius is to give way; that bravery 
and capacity are not to find promotion; that to prove worthy of trust is 
to be debarred from trust again; it is to reverse the experience of human 
nature; this is hypocrisy wearing the mask of patriotism. Vote as you 
please, vote for your neighbor, vote for your friend, vote as you see fit, 
and we shall cheerfully accord to you the same consideration we claim 
for ourselves. But be manly. Strike him down if you will, but, in the 
name of fairness and of truth, grant that this gladiator, who in the arena 
ever wore your colors and never yet turned face from the foe when the 
fight was fiercest, shall go down with his death wound among the proud 
scars that mark his breast — not stabbed in the back. 

I present to you a man who gave to Democracy a living issue; one 
who carries the mind back to the days of the fathers; one whom the 
country regards as among the first of its great intellects; a leader among 
leaders; one who carries the m.yriad details of government at his finger's 
end; one who knows the wants and needs of his country; a profound 
jurist, a statesman in its highest sense; one whose career is part of his 
country's history; one who has added luster to his native State; one whose 
name is a household word; one who, as Speaker of the House of Repre- 



304 KUNTVCKT ELOQUENCE, 

sentatives, challenged the admiration of the country — ^the hope, the guiding 
star of the vast army of toilers; the champion of the people as against 
the robber barons and monopolists; one so poised and calm, with abiding 
faith in the triumph of right and justice that, not carried away by the 
excitement of victory, nor dismayed in the presence of defeat, ever sedate 
and self-contained, he towers above ordinary men as the Sphynx looming 
above the shifting sands of the desert, with prophetic eye, penetrates the 
mysteries of the future. That man is John G. Carlisle. 

- I present to you as our candidate a man who unites to all these qualities 
the simplicity of a child, with the heart of a girl. His life passed in public 
station, yet he is no politician ; administering the most important functions 
of government, his poverty attests "his integrity ; his life is an open book. 
Moving under the beating light for years in public position, no flaw has 
ever been discovered in his integrity; his reputation beams with the calm 
and unspotted radiance of a summer evening star. He is one, "indeed, 
where every god did seem to set his seal, to give the world assurance of 
a man." That man is John G. Carlisle. 

In the name of the Democracy of Ihe Union; in the name of the 
millions who wearily follow the plow ; in the name of the brawn and sweat 
of the republic; in the name of all who grow deaf mid the clatter O'^ 
shuttles, the roar of the wheels and the crash of machinery; in the name 
of those who crisp at the blazing doors of the furnaces ; of the boys who, 
in darkness, tread the slippery roof of the train; of those who forge and 
those who build; of all who produce and those who consume; of the 
millions of humble homes of the land; in the name of equal laws and 
fairness; of justice and equal rights; in the sacred name of freedom and 
equality, I nominate for the position of Senator in the Congress of the 
United States John G. Carlisle, of the county of Kenton. 



EDGAR YOUNG MULLINS. 

[Edgar Young Mullins, D. D., LL. D., President of the Southern Bap- 
tist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., was born in Franklin County, 
Miss., January 5, 1860; Pastor Baptist Church, Harrodsburg, Ky., 1885-1888, 
and of Lee Street Baptist Church, Baltimore. Md., 1888-1895; Associate Cor- 
responding Secretary Foreign Mission Board of Southern Baptist Conven- 
tion. Richmond, Va., 1895-96; Pastor First Baptist Church, Newton, Mass., 
1896-99.] 

GREEK AND MODERN IDEALS IN EDUCATION. 

An address delivered at the Winter Convocation of the University at the 
Stetson University, DeLand, Florida, February, 1903. 

One of the Old Testament prophets paints for us a graphic picture 
which may serve as a symbol of the relation sustained by Greek to modern 
education. A mighty eagle comes from the East and crops from a cedar 
on Mount Lebanon the topmost twig and, flying away with it, the twig is 
planted by the side of the great river. When the cedar twig thus planted 
begins to grow, a remarkable transformation ensues. Instead of a cedar, 
it becomes a vine laden with clusters of luscious grapes for the refresh- 
ment of the nations. The topmost twig of the cedar which grew on the 
Lebanon of ancient civilization was Greek education. The Christian spirit 
has seized it and planted it by the River of Life, and is slowly transforming 
iL Under the spell of that spirit, the ancient education has already yielded 
rich vintage to gladden the hearts of men, and the future is destined to 
witness even a greater transformation and more abundant blessings. 

Note clearly what is proposed in this address. The aim is not to set 
forth a history or exposition of Greek education, or a comprehensive survey 
of educational methods, but rather to indicate briefly a few of the ideals 
cf the Greeks, in order to compare them with some of the modem ideals. 

Notice, then, some of the Greek ideals. First of all, Greek education 
encouraged the love of the beautiful. The artistic faculty found a more 
thorough and consistent development among the Greeks than any other 
ancient people. It has been well said of the Parthenon that "it is a match- 
less pean in stone to divine wisdom as the conqueror of brute force." 
The words harmony and wholeness, or symmetry and completeness, 
express the Greek conception. The chiseling of the choicest pieces of 
marble into suitable shapes, the joining of piece to piece in an ideal plan, 
until the finished temple stood forth, perfectly satisfying the eye in every 
line and curve, this was the constant aim and struggle of the Greeks in 
all departments of life. To harmonize the inner and the outward life, the 
religious and the secular, the practical and the theoretical, the physical and 
intellectual, to make of a man a true friend, a good soldier, a loyal and 
capable citizen, a fearer of the gods, to make him "a speaker of words 
and doer of deeds," was the organizing principle of Greek education. 

To the Greeks all life was capable of interpretation in terms of music. 
But this was a very comprehensive term. In addition to music in the 
ordinary sense, enunciation, accent, pronunciation, as well as poetry and 
other literary forms, were regarded from this standpoint. Most pathetic 

19 



•06 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

and suggestive was the use made of music as a means of cleansing the 
soul of evil. The age-long discord, which the spirit of man has felt within, 
accompanied by the unceasing effort to attain inward peace, was known 
to the Greeks. This struggle Professor James, in his recent work on 
''Varieties of Religious Experience,'* describes as a consciousness of disorder 
removed by an adjustment with powers above man. The same experience 
is also known to Christian theology as the consciousness of sin, followed 
by reconciliation through Christ. The Greeks knew it not in the deep 
Christian way, but they felt the struggle within. The deep cry of their 
spirit was for a master voice which could quell the riot of the passions 
within the soul. With the intuitive conviction that any form of discord 
v/as alien to the spirit of man and that a countervailing influence must 
somewhere be found, music was resorted to as the cleansing power. De- 
fective as it was, yet profound was the insight of this use of music by the 
Greeks. Something definite and constructive must be introduced as a 
power from without, if man's nature is to be subdued. 

In the earlier and heroic period, music and gymnastics were the only 
studies in the curriculum; but as in the earlier, so in the later, whe(n 
speculative IRought received its highest development, the fundamental ideal 
cf harmony prevailed. It was the same struggle, through wisdom, to com- 
bine the parts into a symmetrical whole. Here certainly at a single point, 
if at no other, the Greek and the Hebrew spirit touched each other. In 
the eighth chapter of Proverbs, the career of wisdom is portrayed by the 
inspiration of the Hebrew poet. Wisdom there describes her career as 
a constructive force in the building of the universe. "The Lord possessed 
me in the beginning of His way. I was set up from everlasting. When 
there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains 
abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills 
was I brought forth. When He prepared the heavens I was there; when 
He set a compass upon the face of the depth. When He established the 
clouds above. When He gave to the sea His decree that the water should 
not pass his commandment, when He appointed the foundations of the 
earth. Then was I by Him, as one brought up with Him and I was daily 
His delight, rejoicing always before Him, and my delights were with the 
sons of men." 

There is a rabbinic story that when divine wisdom and power had 
finished the material universe, the angels were called to gaze upon its 
beauty and its harmony. When asked if the fair creation needed anything 
more to make it perfect, they replied: ''Give it a song, and let it sing 
forever," and from that moment "the morning stars sang together and 
all the sons of God shouted for joy." In the construction of their social 
and political universe the Greeks gave to all the parts and to the whole a 
song, and to-day the world listens unwearied to the music of her architec- 
ture, her poetry, her sculpture, her logic and rhetoric and her philosophy. 

Let us notice now some of the excellencies of the Greek system in its 
attempt to realize its ideals in a practical way. 

Arnong the most notable of these excellencies was the attention to 
the training of the young. It was the constant aim to envelope the mind of 
the child from its earliest years with the noblest ideals. The selection of 
the nurse was considered a matter of vital moment. The rhymes and the 
stories of the nursery embodied, as far as possible, the ideals of noble 
character. A guard was set about infancy and childhood as the citadel of 



EDGAR YOUNG MULLIN8. 807 

the nation^s strength. The modem kindergarten recognizes with scarcely 
more profound insight the supreme value of childhood as the key to all 
education. 

Remarkable strides have been made in our day in psycho-physics. The 
relation of physical to intellectual and spiritual development is a fact of 
vast importance for the trainer of the young. A recent writer has written 
a suggestive little book, in which he emphasizes the importance of environ- 
ment upon child-culture. He quotes a pretty verse of poetry from Shakes- 
peare, in which are mentioned various flowers which adorn the meadows 
of Stratford. His point is to show that, unless the images of the flowers 
had been stamped upon the brain of the boy who ran about the Stratford 
meadows, even the genius of the great poet would have lacked the material 
for the creation of beautiful poetic forms. Now, we are but emphasizing 
the physical side of the great truth which the Greeks recognized. To the 
ancient Greek, the education of the child was not, indeed, what in part 
it is to us the education of the lower and higher nerve-centers, but it 
was the seizing of the child nature as the most precious element of Greek 
life and moulding it to the highest ideals. 

Before passing this point, it is pertinent to ask: Are we as wise as 
the ancient Greeks in the strategic significance which we attach to child- 
hood? Have we correlated our new knowledge of the nervous system 
with our old knowledge of spiritual laws and relations? Do we Americans 
sufficiently guard the intellectual and moral life of our children by careful 
attention to the books and magazines which enter into their intellectual 
life at its various stages? Is there not much to justify the quaint satire 
of Mr. Stockton in his little essay on the "Training of Parents" ? He says 
the old theory of the training of children has given place, under the modern 
regime, to a theory for the training of parents. "Begin early," he instructs 
the child, "and persevere. Your task is difficult, for you must mould two 
mature beings until they conform to your will. Let each of the children 
in turn join in the undertaking, and you will in the end succeed. It has 
often happened that when all the older children of a family have failed, 
the youngest has taken the matter in hand and achieved the desired end 
to perfection!" Mr. Stockton then concludes that the ancient injunction, 
"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not 
depart from it," must, under the modem regime, give place to the motto, 
"Train up a parent in the way he should go, and when you are old you 
will know how to go that way yourself." We Americans have leamed the 
lesson of freedom. Our distinctive contribution to the life and thought of 
the world must be stated for the most part in terms of freedom. But our 
task and our contribution will not be completed until freedom shall take 
on its final form, which is obedience. Through law to liberty is the legend 
inscribed on Nature everywhere. The birthright of all childhood is a 
parental discipline which shall train the will. All who have to do with the 
training of childhood would do well to leam from the symbolism of a 
certain painting. The artist represents an angel kneeling by a tomb engaged 
'with great eamestness in some lowly task which at first does not clearly 
appear. The glories of heaven shine through the rifted sky overhead and 
beckon upward; yonder on the horizon the outlines of earthly enterprise 
loom large and beckon away. But the angel remains as if chained to the 
spot absorbed in a nobler task. Closer inspection discloses what that task 
is : A little child is kneeling and, with clasped hands and closed eyes, tums 
the face upward. The angel is teaching the child to pray. 



808 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

This leads me to note a second excellence of the Greek system, which 
was its earnestness and discipline. No one can examine the education of 
the Greeks, either in Athens or Sparta, without being impressed by the 
heroic spirit which characterized it. Aristotle said pithily there is no 
learning without pain. Boys met at appointed places and marched in 
military order to the schools. During an extended period the pedagogue 
was, as it were, the very shadow of the school boy. One scarcely knows 
which of fhese most needs our sympathy, the boy or the pedagogue. 
Sufely the life of the latter must have been a constant burden if the 
Athenian bore any resemblance to the average American boy. And yet 
that boys could be brought into subjection to such a system was a mark 
of the educational genius of the people. The Greek school boy led a 
strenuous life. It was once necessary to pass a law forbidding the opening 
of schools before sunrise and the closing of them after sunset. "The 
Spartan cadets presented themselves naked before the ephors every ten 
days," says a writer; "if they were well knit and strong and looked as if 
caryed and hammered into shape by gymnastics, they were praised ; but if 
they showed flabbiness or softness or any little swelling or suspicion of 
adipose matter due to laziness, they were flogged." ^'A well-developed 
chest, clear complexion, broad shoulders and a short tongue" — ^this was the 
line physical ideal of military Sparta. 

It was this discipline which created some of the greatest of Greek 
characters. Thomas Davidson says, in his book on '^Ideals of Ancient 
Education," that Epaminondas, the Theban general, was the bravest and 
most lovable man Greece ever produced, and that any enthusiastic believer 
in education can fortify his cause by taking him as a brilliant example. 
Lysis, the Pythagorean, taught Epaminondas. The example of Epaminon- 
das kindled the ambition of Philip, of Macedon, who was educated under 
his eye, and of his more famous son, Alexander the Great, who made all 
Greece a province of his empire. Note the educational succession — 
Pythagoras, Lysis, Epaminondas, Philip, Alexander — in five brief genera- 
tions an earnest teacher conquers the world. 

An educated man is like the army of Epaminondas. You recall how he 
used to form his soldiers into converging lines until, in the shape of a 
wedge, he would hurl them point first at the center of the enemy's line, 
divide it and then defeat it. The intellectual powers of a truly educated 
man are thus "disciplined and thus directed, every faculty and power con- 
tributing its force to the one object of the commanding general — ^the will. 

Let the Greeks, then, teach us their lesson of earnestness, of discipline; 
let us put into our struggle for the highest development the truly heroic 
spirit. Let no college or university student despise the drudgery and the 
grind of a three or four years' course. Let him remember that the battles 
of life are usually won before the conflict actually takes place. "Presence 
of mind is preparedness of mind." 

Again, the Greeks emphasized the necessity for the development of 
intellectual capacity as distinguished from mere acquisition. Encyclopedic 
knowledge may be desirable, but the true test of mental power is ability 
to think rather than that which can remember large masses of facts. 
Aristotle is thought by some to have been the most highly educated man 
v/ho ever walked the earth. His intellectual labors were marvelous in range 
and results. In writing a political work, he examined the Constitutions 
of more than two hundred and fifty States. His information was almost 
unparalleled on all subjects with which ancient thought had to do. Yet 



EDGAR YOUNG MULLINS. 809 

his pre-eminence must ever continue tO' lie not in the compass of his 
knowledge, but in the creative force of his intellect/ He is the supreme 
master in deductive logic to-day and he anticipated by many centuries the 
deductive method formulated by Bacon and employed so universally in 
modern science. It is a question often discussed, What distinguishes man 
most of all from the lower animals? Formerly it was said to be his 
capacity for laughter, or his power of speech, or his ability to reason. But 
in recent times research has narrowed the line of division in these respects 
until it seems well nigh invisible. A recent writer holds that the really 
distinguishing mark of man is his ability to extend his sympathy beyond 
the limits of his own tribe. This may be true or not, but I think it must 
be conceded that, in addition to his religious nature, man's capacity for 
growth, not in the merely instinctive way through heredity and the struggle 
for existence, but by choice and voluntary application, is an attribute of 
his nature which sets him apart from all the lower animals. When his 
natural powers fail, man invents a way to attain his end. Some lower 
animals have a keener sense of vision than man, but no eagle ever invented 
a microscope or telescope. Other lower animals excel man in the power 
of hearing, but no deer or antelope has ever, constructed a telephone. This 
is man's distinguishing characteristic; this marks him oflf and places him 
in a class by himself, his capacity for endless growth, his eternal discontent 
with his present attainments. The man who ceases to grow thereby de- 
scends to the sub-human plane. The fact that his nature reaches upward 
to the eternal and rests not in any past achievement marks his kinship 
to the divine. 

"Surely that whicli made us meant us to be mightier by and by, 
Set the sphere of all the boundless heavens within the human eye, 
Sent the shadow of Himself, the boundless, through the human soul, 
Boundless inward in the atom; boundless outward in the whole." 

Here, too, the Greeks beckon us onward and upward. They valued 
growth, the increase of capacity, as the choicest flower of education. 

Once more, we may note as an excellence of Greek education that it 
encouraged the belief that the best verification for all truth is to be found 
in the school of practical life. In this they come into vital touch with our 
modem American ideal. The value of the dialectic method was appre- 
ciated to the full. As often remarked, nothing was better suited to quicken 
thought and sharpen the wits than to join a circle on the stiieet comer' 
or in the market place in which Socrates asked his searching questions or 
answered those of others. A modern man of wide influence has said 
three things are essential to every man's efficiency in practical life: First, 
to spend as much time as possible in the open air; second, to mingle as 
freely as possible with the common people every day; third, to make it 
a rule to converse every day with some one who knows more than one's 
seff. The Greeks sharpened their wits and kept their bodies healthy by 
observing all three of these injunction. 

Then, too, the art of war was learned by practice in the field. Every 
hill and stream, every fastness or mountain defile, became familiar to the 
young Greek as he took his drill in the closing years of his university 
education. 

We must pass now to consider some of the defects of the Greek 
education, and our consideration of these will prepare the way for oui 
closing remarks as to the modern ideals. 



810 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

If we were to characterize these defects in general, we would say 
they might be summed up in the statement that the Greek ideals of 
education were not sufficiently human. It was, broadly speaking, an 
attempt which sacrificed humanity on the altar of art. An artificial con- 
ception of society was made to do service in a manner so thoroughgoing 
as to do violence to much that is elemental and permanent in human 
nature. The principle of harmony around which Greek thought and life 
were organized was inadequate. The pattern of the temple was beautiful, 
but much of the marble was left unutilized when the edifice was complete. 

Coming to particulars, we observe, for one thing, that Greek education 
robbed the State of the priceless boon of motherhood. The boy was 
snatched from the mother's care at a very early period of his life, and 
committed to the care of others. Much of that lengthened period of 
infancy, characteristic of man as distinguished from the lower animals, 
which Mr. Drummond has so beautifully described for us, in which unfold- 
ing life is entrusted by wise Nature to the tender care of the human 
mother, and which is beyond all question one of the supreme factors in 
the formation of character, was denied the Greek boy. Thomas Carlyle's 
tender appeal to his dead mother well voices the modem and Christian 
conception of motherhood and is worthy of a place in literature as the 
classic expression of filial love: "O pious mother, kind, good, brave 
and truthful soul as I have ever found, and more than I have ever elsewhere 
found in this world, your poor Tom, long out of his school days now, has 
fallen very lonely, very lame and broken in this pilgrimage of his, and you 
can not help him or cheer him by a kind word any more. From your 
grave in Ecclefechan Kirkyard yonder, you bid him trust in God, and that 
also will he try, if he can understand and do." Sad is the lot of any 
nation which becomes impoverished of mothers, or which seeks by some 
principle of harmony to organize society without leaving to motherhood 
its peerless rank in the scheme of educational forces. 

The same statements apply to wifehood and womanhood in general, 
as to motherhood among the Greeks. There was no sufficient provision 
made for the education of woman, or adequate recognition of her place 
in society. Some of the later Greek writers began to see the importance 
of reform at this point. Thomas Davidson, in his work previously referred 
to, quotes a long passage from Xenophon, in which he sets forth a scheme 
for the education of the young wife by the husband. He represents 
Socrates as inquiring of Ischomachus, the young husband who has the 
fortitude to attempt the education of his wife, how he went about the 
novel task. We sympathize with the interest of Socrates when he makes 
this inquiry and adds: "I shall be more interested in hearing you tell 
that than if you told me all about the finest gymnastic or equestrian 
exhibition.'* Listen to the brave young husband as he explains in detail 
the course of instruction through which he conducts his wife. He taught 
her how to train servants; how to make herself attractive without the 
use of cosmetics or fine clothes; how to have a place for everything and 
everything in its place, and various other duties of the housewife. When 
one considers the possibilities for domestic broils which lay along the career 
of this young husband and wife, and reflects that the nam.e given to the 
husband, Ischomachus, means "strong fighter," one is tempted to regard 
Xenophon in the light of a humorist. In this portrayal we have a strong 
reflexion of the consciousness which was taking place among the Greeks, 



EDOAR YOUNG MULLINS, 811 

that the safety of the State was vitally related to the^ proper education of 
woman. 

After what has been said, it may seem strange to add that Greek 
education gave no proper recognition to manhood as such. The man 
was constantly sunk in the citizen. The State was supreme in all the 
ideals of Greek education. The first of the two degrees bestowed was 
that of "citizen novice," and the second that of "citizen." The State was 
the alma mater of every educated man. Moreover, Greek civilization 
failed to recognize the manhood, of the slave or the barbarian. It was 
essentially an aristocracy. Thus we see that Greek life was, after all, a 
Procrustean bed, on which manhood, womanhood and family life were 
sacrificed to an artificial standard. 

Most of all was the Greek system defective in the absence of moral 
discernment and moral force. Socrates inaugurated a new era in this 
respect, and those who followed him profoundly felt that there was moral 
lack, but failed to grasp fully the elements of the problem. Another 
thinker who proclaimed the dictum that "Man is the measure of all things" 
made a long stride towards the recognition of the worth of the individual. 
But no new moral sanction was discovered which was equal to the needs 
01 the hour. 

It is at this point that we discern most clearly the element which 
Christianity introduced to make good all that was defective in the Greek 
system and gradually transformed it into nobler forms than it had ever 
known. What Christianity introduced was ethical and spiritual power, 
accompanied by a new and higher conception of virtue. In the Christian 
teaching the "summum bonum" was no longer the state, but the kingdom 
of God; citizenship was no longer confined to racial or geographical or 
national lines, but men were citizens of the world; no longer were men 
divided into Greek citizens on the one hand and barbarians and slaves 
on the other; all were equal before God. The individual was in and of 
himself of supreme value to God, who loved all men. The highest virtue 
was to be realized in the spirit of service ; and particularly did Christianity 
proclaim that in the union with Jesus Christ by faith, moral and spiritual 
reinforcement came to the wills of men which, in the long and vain 
struggle with sin, had suflfered paralysis. 

We may now recur to the general statement of the Greek ideal which 
we found to consist primarily of the idea of harmony and wholeness, the 
attempt to "see life steadily and see it whole" combined with a heroic 
effort to unite the parts into a perfect political and civic life. The modern 
ideal may also be stated in terms of harmony. The aesthetic are now, 
indeed, subordinated to the ethical harmonies. In a deeper and wider 
sense, the passion for order finds satisfaction. If then we note some 
points at which the modem harmony succeeds, we shall thereby indicate 
wherein the Greek effort for harmony failed. 

Observe, then, first, that in the best modem education, the end sought 
is a successful union of the forces which make for character with the 
forces which make for intelligence. Man is regarded first of all as a moral 
being and, secondarily, as an intellectual being. So exclusively intellectual 
did the Greek system become that in the end virtue (arete) was made 
identical with wisdom or knowledge. Modem education must forever 
guard the distinction between the two in order that, in the administration 
of educational forces, proper provision shall be made for the forces which 
make for character along with those which make for knowledge. 



312 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

Again, the best modern education seeks successfully to combine the 
theoretical with the practical life. The later Greeks were dreamers of 
beautiful dreams. The republic of Plato is one of the most brilliant of 
the many Utopias which have emanated from the human brain. But the 
tendency of the speculative life so highly developed in the later stages of 
Greek history was to paralyze the practical. The feet of the super-civic 
men were finally lifted clear of the earth and into an intellectual dreamland. 
The tendency in our day is in the opposite direction. Empirical science has 
left its mark on everything. Impatient of the claims of any realm which 
lies beyond the range of verification in the ordinary experimental way, 
it often looks with insufficient interest upon the phenomena which have 
their roots in the world of spirit. It is one of the most urgent tasks of 
modem education to reassert and make good the union between the practical 
and theoretical or ideal sides of life. A steady hand must be kept upon 
the helm of the ship of education in its voyage across the sea of experi- 
mental science, so that when it arrives at its destination it shall cast anchor 
in the haven of the unseen and eternal. 

In the third place, the best modern education seeks to keep steadily 
in view the union of the kingly and the priestly elements in life. By the 
kingly I mean the elements of power; by the priestly the elements of 
service. In human history most of the disaster has been wrought by the 
separation of these elements. Rarely, indeed, has it been true that kingly 
men were also priestly men. But in the Christian revelation the redeerned 
and ideal humanity forever unites the two. "He made us to be kings and 
priests unto God." Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Nero and Napo- 
leon Bonaparte were kingly men without the priestly instinct. Alfred the 
Great, Oliver Cromwell, George Washington, Robert E. Lee and Abraham 
Lincoln were both kingly and priestly men. The great brain in each of 
these men was joined with the great heart; the spirit "of conquest was 
ennobled and glorified by the spirit of service. The fire of genius was 
intensified by that "touch of humanity" which makes the whole world 
kin, and they are enshrined forever in the memory of the race as bene- 
factors, because their ideal was the service of man. Henceforth he who 
possesses power in any form must hold it in trust for the semce of his 
fellowman. He who ascends the throne of culture or wealth or power in 
any form must ever hold 'himself in readiness to descend to the ranks of 
his fellowmen and don the priestly robes of service, bringing with him 
the sceptre of his power. Modern life, if it is to be saved from materialism 
and vulgarity and brutality, must be moralized. The ballot is a form of 
kingly power. Every Voter is one of the sovereign people. The American 
citizen is a king. He needs also to become a priest; to hold his power 
as a sacred trust and make of citizenship a means of serving the highest 
ideals of social and political life. Thus shall our relations to foreign peoples 
and possessions find expression not merely in the kingly assertion of 
power, but also in the priestly activity of service. Thus shall we as a 
people conserve and observe the universal law of love and righteousness. 



WILLIAM C. OWENS. 

[William C. Owens, Lawyer, Louisville, Ky., was born in Scott County, 
Kentucky in 1853; former County Attorney; Member Kentucky Legislature 
1879 to 1887; Speaker of House in 1887; Chairman National Democratic 
Convention 1892; Member of Congress from Seventh District 1895-1896; 
Major in 2d Kentucky Regiment, Spanish-American War.] 

OUR PRESIDENT. 

A speech delivered at a banquet given to Hon. Leslie Combs, at the Gait 
House, Louisville, Ky., January 5, 1903. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : 

To the patriot citizen the President of this great republic must always 
be an enthusing theme. Apart from personal considerations, which deter- 
mine his selection from the multi-million mass about him, apart from the 
political convictions to which he owes his elevation to that proud eminence, 
the fierce light that beats upon the place of power invests its occupant with 
an interest profound and intense. Above the man, above the party, rises 
the great oifice, the incarnate representative of the might and the majesty 
of millions of people consecrated by more than a century of time to the 
great problem of free government. Among the sons of men, there is no 
nobler ambition than the first place among such a people, and that ambition 
achieved, there can be no holier purpose than to come completely up to 
the lofty standard of its many and multiform duties. 

It is one called to that proud station and moved, as I believe, by that 
sacred purpose, that your chairman commends to us this evening. It is 
never praiseworthy to become the unthinking critic of a foe or the unseemly 
eulogist of a friend, but, standing in the presence of this President, of whom 
I speak to-night, measuring as best I can the symmetry 'of his peculiarly 
rounded character and noting his unique fulfillment of the highest ideals of 
American youth, and later of American manhood, it is difficult, if not 
impossible, to keep within the area of conservative statement. The history 
of obscure youth bearing the burden of poverty, but undaunted by obstacle, 
struggling upward from the dull earth to match his name with the proudest 
and the greatest, is now, as ever, the familiar refrain of both song and 
story, but we have been called upon, alas, too seldom, to pay tribute to 
the sturdy worth of that character which, born to generous wealth and 
station, calmly puts aside the gracious gifts of both and counts only that 
as worthy which by merit it may proudly win, and then by the only right 
divine as proudly wear. 

We have had many great Presidents, choice spirits gathered from the 
world's every walk, but I believe it may be truthfully said of Theodore 
Roosevelt that he has touched the current of American life at more and 
more diverse angles than any other citizen, living or dead, of this republic, 
and never touched it save to leave it better for the contact. In the palatial 
homes of the East, in the rude tents of the border West, plodding in the 
libraries for the material to enrich and illumine history, delving in the 
slums in his work of the purification of a great city, perfecting a navy 



814 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

for the giant task it had to do, Governor of a mighty Commonwealth 
and President of a mightier republic, his post, whether it be in public or 
private station, has always been the post of honor. 

In peace easily equal to every demand, war withered no laurel that his 
worth had won. On a foreign soil, with a foreign foe before him and his 
country's flag above him, he threw himself as unhesitatingly and as exult- 
antly into the "battle's perilous edge" as if life had held no light to guide 
or cheer his hope. Summoned under the providence -of God to the chief 
magistracy of a great nation, by splendid courage, by wise foresight and 
loving sympathy, he has stilled at home the legions of unrest and discon- 
tent, silenced by results the criticisms of the small, and, among the nations 
of the world, lifted his country's banner nearer to the sun. Called to the 
leadership of a great party, a party bom in the throes of war and christened 
?i the font of freedom, a party whose principles have flowered in th^ 
rich development of a people whose unmatched achievements shame the 
magic of Oriental tale and will stand through the unfolding centuries the 
marvel and the wonder of the world; a party entrusted by such a people 
with unlimited power to fashion their policies and shape their destiny, 
before his wise and forceful faction vanished whenever true Republican- 
ism had a home, and at the last election a cordon of States that knew no 
bounds save the ocean waves placed the stamp of approval upon his conduct 
of both public and party affairs. 

If I read myself aright, I am not now and never was a hero worshiper, 
but, to my mind, this man stands as the most tensely representative 
American character in all the wide range of American history. 

A son of wealth, a cowboy on the plains, a historian and a maker of 
history, a soldier, a statesman, a civilian and high official, keeping always 
to the faith, holding sturdily to the best ideals of duty and of honor and 
wearing through all the tract of busy years "the white flower of a blameless 
life." 

Holding to this idea, should I be called upon to name some bright 
exemplar upon whom the hopeful and earnest youth of America might 
fashion lives of usefulness and honor, where should I turn if not to the 
President of this, the only true republic? And such a republic is not 
ungrateful, for it requires no prophet's ken, no seer, no sage to look forward 
to the good year of 1904 and behold him nominated by the Republican 
party's one acclaim and triumphantly elected by a vote without precedent 
in the history of American politics. 



R. R. PERRY. 



[R. R. Perry, Editor of the "Sun-Sentinel," Winchester, Ky., was born 
in Anderson County, Ky., Octoher 18, 1846; Postmaster, Winchester, Ky., 
now serving third term.l 

THE LITTLE BRONZE BUTTON. 

A speech delivered at the decoration of the graves of the Federal soldiers 
in the cemetery at Lexington, Ky., May 30, 1906. 

With a perfect civilization, there would be no occasion for an assembly 
of this kind. There would have been no civil war. But those who live 
in the present age must accept the conditions as they find them, and with 
these conditions wars are inevitable. 

It will not be improper at this time to review some matters connected 
^^'ith our Government prior to the Civil War. The first settlements were 
made along the Atlantic coast. The African slave trade was recognized as 
legitimate business, and the slave dealers plied their trade along the coast 
from Maine to Florida. The inhabitants in the Southern part of the 
country were from what was known as the Cavalier class of the older 
countries, while those of the North were of the more sturdy or business 
class. 

The natural conditions made slavery more profitable in the South, and, 
finally, it became a Southern institution. There was very little internal 
trade and about the only exports were tobacco and rice. Cotton could 
not be raised profitably. The slaves increased rapidly, with the result that 
the owners could not use their labor to advantage, and it was said of 
many planters that they were slave poor. The first emancipation societies 
were formed in the South. And it was Virginia that put the first restric- 
tions on the extension of slavery. In ceding the Northwestern Territory 
to the Government, Virginia made it a condition of her grant that there 
should be no slavery in the ceded territory. 

A simple mechanical invention by a Northern man, Eli Whitney, in 
1792, made slavery profitable; and his discovery was an accidental one. 
In sawing a pine board lying on a pile of cotton, he noticed that the fiber 
would attach itself to the gum on the saw, and this gave him' the idea 
of the cotton gin — a simple machine that produced far-reaching results. 

Slavery was then profitable, and the anti-slavery societies in the South 
disappeared. Prior to this invention, the most expert slave could gin no 
more than fifty cents' worth of cotton a day. 

As civilization advanced, the moral sentiment against the institution of 
human slavery increased in all the countries, but in none so great as in the 
Northern and Western half of our country. 

And in the South there was a considerable element that was against 
slavery. One of Dur most distinguished Kentuckians, Cassius M. Clay, 
was one of the leaders, and, while Henry Clay was a slave owner, he 
did not approve of slavery. In this connection, I will give a story of 
Henry Clay. It has never been in print, as far as I know: 

Mr. Clay conceived the idea of emancipating some of his own slaves. 



316 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

He put it into effect by going to Indiana and buying a large body of land 
and locating his slaves, with their families, in that free State. In the fall 
of the following year, he was sitting on his porch at Ashland, when he 
faintly heard singing down the road in the direction of Lexington. The 
music became more and more distinct and, in a little while, there came 
marching through the gate the entire crowd of negroes to whom he had 
given freedom. They would rather be slaves of Henry Clay in Kentucky 
than free in Indiana. And there is no greater hero in American history 
than Cassius M. Clay, who, when a mob in this city was gathered to 
destroy the plant of his emancipation paper, barricaded himself in his 
office, armed, and, with a loaded pistol in the touch-hole of a keg of powder, 
said to the mob: ''Come on; I will fight as long as I can and, as a last 
resort, will fire this pistol into the powder and blow you as well as myself 
into eternity." The mob did not come; they were acquainted with "Cash'' 
Clay. 

There were reasons other than slavery why the Southern States tried 
to withdraw from the Union, but without slavery these would not have 
existed. It was slavery and the attempts to extend it that furnished senti- 
ment in the North. In addition was also the determination that the Union 
must not be severed. 

Many Southerners honestly believe that, under the original compact, 
a State had a right to sever its connection with the Union. 

While it was a Northern man that, by his invention, made slavery 
profitable, it was a Southern man, Cyrus H. McCormick, a Virginian, who, 
by the invention of the reaper in 1831, made it possible for the Union 
armies to be sustained during the war. 

McCormick's machine was not appreciated in Virginia, and he went to 
Chicago in 1847. His machine was in general use by i860, and it was 
by it that the grain of the Central West was harvested. It supplied the 
deficiency of labor, and was the means of furnishing bread to the soldiers 
in the field. 

In Kentucky the sentiment between adherence to the Union and seces- 
sion was about equally divided. It looks like a contradiction, but it is true ; 
patriotism from a different view-point caused both sides to pursue the 
course that they did; the Unionists to perpetuate the Union, the Confed- 
erates to maintain what they believed to be the sovereign rights of the 
States. 

The war ended and those of us who survived returned io our old 
Kentucky homes and resumed the same business and fraternal relations 
that existed before the strife. There was not at any timje a feeling of 
bitterness by the contestants on either side. 

We have no fault to find with those who cherish in loving memory 
their achievements in a lost cause. But those of us who are members of 
the Grand Army -of the Republic know that we are the ones that saved 
the Union from dissolution. The fittle bronze button that we wear is 
more precious to us than the diamonds of the world. The best that the 
future historian can say of the other side will be that they fought for a 
principle and their purpose was to dismember the Union. On the other 
hand, the Federal soldiers will be treated as the saviors of the Union. The 
proudest heritage that any American can leave to his posterity is to have 
been one of those who sacrificed his life to perpetuate a union of the 
States, the result of which was to make this the greatest nation of the 
world. 



R. R- PERRY. 317 

Veneration for the dead is a universal trait of human character. At 
this hour, all over this great country of ours, the few remaining ex-soldiers, 
their descendants and friends, are assembled to do honor to fallen heroes. 
It is no more than a sentiment, 'tis true, but it is a noble sentiment. It does 
not affect the dead, but it tends to elevate and give purer thoughts to the 
minds of the living. 

And now, comrades, a word to you: Our race is almost run. I was 
one of the youngest, being less than sixteen when I enlisted in 1862. 
Probably each of you is older than I am, and I am referred to as an old 
man. A few more years and our bodies will lie in line with those of our 
comrades that have gone before, and friends will come on this memorial 
day and strew flowers on our graves. 

There is no class of people upon which greater responsibility rests. 
Following our loved flag, we fought to make the country what it is to-day. 
L,et us so live that the glorious achievements of our younger days may be 
perpetuated in the minds and hearts of those who will come after us. 



JOHN POPE. 



[John Pope, United States Senator, Governor, was born in Prince William 
County, Va., m 1770; died in Springfield, Washington County, Ky., July 12, 1845; 
he was brought to Kentucky in boyhood, and, having lost an arm through an ac- 
cident, he was compelled to abandon farm work, and after studying law was 
admitted to the bar; he first settled in Shelby County, but afterward re- 
moved to Lexington, Ky.; he was a member of the Kentucky Legislature for 
several years, and in 1801 was a Presidential Elector on the Jefferson ticket. 
He was elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat, and served from 
October 26, 1807, till March 3, 1813, acting as President pro tempore of the 
Senate in 1811; from 1829 till 1835 he was Territorial Governor of Arkansas; 
returned to Kentucky and was elected to Congress, serving from September 
4, 1837, to March 3, 1843.] 

THE OCCUPATION OF WEST FLORIDA. 

A speech delivered in the Senate of the United States on Thursday, De- 
cember 27, 1810, favorable to a "Bill declaring the laws now in force in the 
Territory of Orleans to extend to, and to have full force and effect, to the river 
Perdido, in West Florida, pursuant to the treaty concluded at Paris on the 
30th of April, 1803, and for other purposes." 

Mr. President: 

I regret that the honorable chairman of the committee who reported 
this bill is not here to give it that support which his talents, information 
and the importance of the subject authorize us to expect. His absence 
has devolved on me, as a member "of the committee and a representative 
of that section of fhe Union more immediately interested in the subject 
before us, to explain to the Senate some of the grounds which induced 
them to make this report. The first important question which the procla- 
mation of the President and this bill presents for consideration is whether 
or not the United States has a good title to the territory in question. 
Before I examine the treaty of cession from France to the United States 
cf 1803, the source of our claim, permit me to inquire what were the 
limits of Louisiana in that quarter to which this subject leads us before 
the treaty and cession of 1792-3, between France, Spain and Great Britain? 
On this subject, however, I believe there is no contrariety of opinion. 
Before this period, Louisiana extended east of the river Mississippi to the 
river Perdido. France and Spain, by the treaty of 1719, established this 
boundary between Florida, now called East Florida, and Louisiana. The 
ancient limits of Louisiana have been so fully ascertained by the documents 
laid before Congress at different times, and the numerous discussions the 
subject has undergone, that I should only waste the time of the Senate in 
attempting to throw any new light on it. I shall only refer the Senate 
to one additional evidence that the river was the ancient eastern boundary 
of this province. Mr. Smollet, in his continuation of "Hume's History of 
England," states the answer of the British Government to the propositions 
made by France for peace eariy in the year 1761, from which it appears 
that France then claimed the river Perdido as their eastern limit, nor does 
this fact appear to have been contested by the British minister. It appears 
that, previous to the war which terminated in 1763, Louisiana compre- 



JOHN POPE . 819 

bended nearly the whole country watered by the Mississippi and its 
branches. I find it stated in a pamphlet, published in New York, that 
France, by a secret cession, contemporaneous with the treaty called the 
family compact of 1761, transferred this country to Spain to induce her 
to become her ally in the war against Great Britain; and, although I can 
find no evidence to support this statement, yet the events of that war, 
previous to that period, renders it at least probable. It will be remembered 
that the arms of Great Britain had triumphed over those of France, both 
by sea and land. France had lost Canada and a great number of ships 
of war. Spain was not then a party" in the war, and to induce her to become 
so, it seems probable that France, under the pressure of adverse fortune, 
ceded to her this province. But, as this statement does not correspond 
with the documents on our tables, nor the views of others who have ex- 
amined this subject, we are compelled to take it for granted that the 
cession of West Louisiana, since called West Florida, to Great Britain, 
was made at the same time, in the year 1762. It is, however, well known 
that France made the cession to Great Britain at the instance and for the 
benefit of Spain to enable her, with the cession of Florida, now called 
East Florida, to obtain restitution of Cuba. The whole of Louisiana, not 
conquered by Great Britain, may, with propriety, be said to have been 
given up or ceded to Spain. Let us now examine that part of the treaty 
of cession between the United States and France of 1803, which relates 
to this question. By that treaty we acquired Louisiana as fully, and in 
the same manner as it had been acquired by France from Spain, in virtue 
of the treaty of St. Ildefonso of the 1st of October, 1800. By this treaty 
Spain retroceded Louisiana to France "with the same extent it then had 
in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and such 
as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain 
and other States." That this extract from that treaty is correct can not 
be doubted, as it has never been denied by Spain. The word "retroceded" 
in this treaty has, I believe, occasioned more doubt with regard to the 
meaning of this cession than any expression contained in it, but can not, 
when the subject is properly examined, have the effect contended for. It 
is said that, as France ceded to Spain, in 1762, Louisiana west of the 
Mississippi, including the island of New Orieans, the word '^retrocede" 
must limit the cession to what had been previously ceded by France to 
Spain ; but if it be true that Louisiana east and west of the Mississippi was 
ceded to Spain in the year 1761, although East Louisiana was afterwards 
ceded by France, with the consent of Spain and Great Britain, the word 
^'retrocede" might, with propriety, be used with reference to the original 
grant to Spain in 1761, or if, what will not be denied, the cession of 
East Louisiana, alias West Florida, so called by Great Britain after 1763, 
could well say to France, I re-grant to you what you ceded to me, and on 
my account, or, at least, so much as I can re-grant consistently with the 
treaties I have since made; and this seems to be the plain and evident 
meaning of the instrument. If the parties had meant to confine the retro- 
cession to the limits of the cession, made by France to Spain, of Louisiana 
west of the Mississippi, including the island of New Orleans, they would 
have used the same description. They would certainly have stopped after 
saying the extent it then had in the hands of Spain. But, to prevent 
mistake or misconstruction, they add, "that it had when France possessed 
it," and, what is still more conclusive of the meaning of the parties, they 
go on to say, "and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently 



320 



KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE 



entered into between Spain and other States." As Spain had never entered 
into any treaty with regard to the western boundary of Louisiana, and as 
the only treaties to which the parties could have alluded was that of 1783 
Mith Great Britain, and of 1795 with the United States, both relative to 
limits on the east side of the Mississippi, it is perfectly clear that the 
contracting parties meant to comprehend whatever of Louisiana, on the 
east side of the Mississippi, Spain had a title to. If the construction I con- 
tend for is admitted, then the later parts of the description will have no 
effect, contrary to a settled principle of law and common sense that every 
part of an instrument shall have effect, if it can by any reasonable con- 
struction. To strengthen the construction for which I must insist, it may 
not be amiss to consider the views of the French Government at the time 
this treaty of St. Ildefonso was made. They, no doubt, acquired this 
province with an intention of holding it, and it was an object of national 
pride to regain as much as practicable of the colonies which had been lost 
under the 'olci government. Besides, they could not be ignorant of the 
importance of East Louisiana, now West Florida, to the security of New 
Orleans; and, as the practicability of obtaining it at that time from Spain 
can not be doubted, the presumption is irresistible that the cession was 
intended to embrace it. I had intended to have ascertained at the Depart- 
ment of State the ground of objection with Spain to the surrender of that 
country to the United States, but I have not made the inquiry. I do not, 
however, think it difficult to account for the conduct of Spain. My con- 
jecture is that France, after she had sold Louisiana to the United States 
and received the price stipulated, secretly advised Spain not to surrender 
it, having at that time formed the project which she is now attempting 
tc execute, of acquiring the whole Spanish empire. Her interest was, 
therefore, identified with that of Spain, and she was, no doubt, willing to 
unite with Spain in giving the most limited construction to the cession to 
the United States. I find that Congress, by an act passed on the 24th 
of February, 1804, have solemnly asserted our right to this territory and 
authorized the President to take possession of it, and to establish a port 
cf entry, etc., on the Mobile, whenever he should deem it expedient. The 
time when and circumstances under which this step should be taken were 
submitted to the discretion of the President. I may be permitted to ask 
why, if we had no title to this territory, the President was urged to take 
possession by force and censured for not doing it? If my recollection 
is accurate, all parties agreed we ought to have the country; they only 
differed as to the mode of acquiring it. The President, influenced by that 
policy which has hitherto guided the present administration, of avoiding 
of making this nation a party in the present European war, in the exercise 
of discretionary power vested in him by that act, did not think proper to 
seize upon it by force, but to wait for the occurrence of events to throw 
it into our hands without a struggle. 

The expediency of taking possession of this territory can not, it appears 
to me, admit of a doubt. If the President had refused or hesitated to meet 
the wishes of the people of West Florida by extending to them the pro- 
tection of the American Government, and they had sought security in the 
arms of a foreign power, or, if time had been given for intrigue to mature 
itself, another Burr plot would probably have risen from the ashes of 
the first, more formidable to the integrity of this empire. Burr, like 
Archimedes, fancied that if he had a place to stand upon — a place beyond 
the jurisdiction of the United States to rally his followers—he could over- 



JOHN POPE. 821 

turn the Government. He has, it is true, fled from the frowns of an indig- 
nant country, but he was not alone. Let an opportunity be afforded, and 
a thousand Burrs would throw off the mask and point their arms against 
the Federal Union. On a subject of such interest, it would have been 
criminal in those appointed to watch over the national safety to have hesi- 
tated. I was surprised to hear this procedure pronounced a robbery and 
making of war. Why should our sympathies be awakened in favor of 
Spain? What claim has the Spanish Government upon our moderation 
and forbearance? What has been her conduct? From the moment we 
became an independent nation, she has been intriguing to separate the 
Western country from the Atlantic States. She has made, at different 
periods, and as late as the year 1797, in violation of her treaty of 1795 
with this country, direct propositions to the Western people to secede from 
the Union and, to accomplish her object, at least attempted the use of means 
most corrupt. What has been her conduct since we acquired Louisiana? 
If I am correctly informed, our deserters and slaves who have taken refuge 
in Florida, in many instances, have not been surrendered, and enormous 
duties have been imposed on our vessels navigating the Mobile. Under 
all these provocations, sufficient to have drawn upon them from almost 
any other nation an open declaration of war, our Government, influenced 
by that pacific policy which has hitherto regulated its course towards 
foreign nations, exercised patience and forbearance. And, since the late 
revolution in Spain, I believe it will not be pretended that this Govern- 
ment has manifested any disposition to throw our weight into the scale 
of France against the Spanish party. Our Government has taken no step 
in relation to West Florida until compelled by a regard to our own safety. 
The executive in the proceeding under consideration has used language the 
most conciliatory, and, on the face of his proclamation, g^ven a pledge that 
this Government will at any time enter into amicable negotiations on the 
subject of our claim to this territory, if it shall be disputed. 

As this measure has been emphatically called an act of robbery and 
war, it may not be amiss to consider the political state of the Spanish 
colonies in relation to the Spanish Government in the hands of the Junta 
and the new dynasty about to be established by Bonaparte. It may be 
said, perhaps, that the late alienation of the Spanish crown and the revolu- 
tion in Spain have dissolved the tie which connects them with the mother 
country. On this point I will not detain the Senate. If the French arms 
shall be successful in Spain, of which I believe few entertain much doubt, 
and the Junta shall be driven from old Spain to any of the colonies, their 
political character must cease, and they can no longer claim the exercise 
of any jurisdiction or sovereignty over the colonies. The colonies are 
not bound together by any political bond unconnected with the mother 
country; they are subject to the mother country, but the moment she is 
conquered, they are at liberty to provide for themselves, unless, indeed, 
the Emperor of France or King Joseph claim them. France, in an official 
expos^, and King Joseph, by proclamation, have declared their willingness 
that the colonies should become independent, provided they do not connect 
themselves with Great Britain. If France, therefore, shall, which is prob- 
able, conquer the mother country, we are fully authorized by her public 
declaration to the worid to acquire, with the consent of the inhabitants, 
not only West but East Florida, Cuba or any other province which we 
shall deem it expedient to connect with the United States. This bill may 
be justified, independent of title, by the law of self-preservation. Have we 

20 



822 KENTOOKT ELOQUENCE, 

any assurance that the Spanish Government will maintain their neutrality 
in this territory, if we should be involved in a war with either France or 
Great Britain ? Can they, or will they, prevent the march of an enemy's 
force through that territory into the United States? No, sir; we have 
every reason to expect the contrary. Considering how vulnerable we are 
from this territory, its present state, and the aspect of our foreign affairs, 
it appears to me that we are authorized to take possession of it as a measure 
of national security. It may be objected that taking the property of others 
by force tends to relax the morals of the people, by destroying that criterion 
of right and wrong, the observance of which is so necessary to the purity 
cf our republic; and I am ready to admit that we ought to proceed upon 
this principle of necessity and expediency with great caution, and never 
to act upon it but in extreme and evident cases. Had we a colony on the 
coast of England or France, similarly situated, we know they would not 
hesitate. When we reflect that our property is seized by almost every 
nation; that the laws and usages of nations are disregarded by nearly all 
of Europe; that their conduct has been lately marked with a degree of 
perfidy and rapacity unexampled in the history of the civilized world; 
that they have in fact become States of barbarity, it appears to me that we 
ought not, as regards them, to be over-nice or squeamish upon questions 
of this sort. Shall we sit here with our arms folded until the enemy is 
at our gates? If we waste our time in discussion and refining abstract 
questions of right and wrong, we shall lose our independence, and we shall 
deserve to lose it. I had hoped this bill would have passed without much 
debate; I know the people are tired of long speeches and documents. This 
fondness for lengthy discussions has even drawn upon Congress the 
reproaches of the ladies; they begin to say: "Less talk; more action." 



EDWARD LINDSAY POWELL. 

[Rev. EdTV^rd Lindsay Powell, D. D., Louisville, Ky., was born in King 
William County, Va., May 8, 1860; graduated from Olirlstian University, Can- 
ton, Mo., with degree of M. A.; honorary degree of LL. D., from Kentucky 
tTniversity; Author of a volume of sermons, "The Victory of Faith," and a 
series of addresses, entitled "Savonarola," &c.; President American Chris- 
tian Missionary Society; Member of the Louisville Free Library Board.] 

PAUL BEFORE AGRIPPA. 

A lecture delivered in Macauley's Theatre, Louisville, Ky., on the night 
of April 29, 1906. 

I ask your attention to the first verse, twenty-sixth chapter, of the 
Book of Acts: "Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to 
speak for thyself." Then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for 
himself. 

Let us, in the first place, get the setting of our story. Paul had but just 
returned from his third missionary journey. Immediately upon his arrival 
in Jerusalem, he reports to the elders of the church and rehearses before 
them his experiences. A few days thereafter, he is recognized in the temple 
as the hated and powerful new converTtb the faith that was spreading 
like a conflagration. It required only a little time to form a mob, from 
which he escaped with his life only through the intervention of the Roman 
authorities. Then follows the hurried trial before the Sanhedrim, and, 
under an armed escort, he is almost immediately transferred to Cesarea, the 
political capital of Judea. There he faces Felix, the Roman Governor. As 
he stood before him on this memorable occasion, he reasoned of righteous- 
ness and temperance and judgment to come. Felix trembled. He is kept 
in prison for two years, or until the expiration of the term in office of Felix. 
When Festus comes in the room of Felix, the case of Paul calls for im- 
mediate attention. Standing before the successor of Felix, the apostle 
makes that memorable appeal to Caesar, which made possible his journey 
to Rome. During the interval, the time of waiting for his journey to Rome, 
there comes to the capital Agrippa with Bemice, his sister, to make a visit 
of congratulation and ceremony to the newly-elected Governor. Festus 
arranged for the interview between the king and the Roman prisoner, and 
so it happens that, for the first time in Paul's eventful and riiemorable 
life, he faces a king. The last prince in the Herodian line stands in the 
presence of the chief among the apostles. 

Now, my friends, it is interesting to study the orator whose great speech 
we are to consider to-night. Some one has said that two elements enter 
into any great speech. They are truth and personality. We are interested 
in the personality of Paul. What sort of man was he ? Was he dramatic? 
Was he picturesque? Are we to discover in him any of those imaginary 
qualities which we think should be dominant in the character of a great 
speaker? I think of Paul as a man of small stature, certainly not of com- 
manding presence, and utterly wanting in any physical grace other than 
that which was natural and spontaneous. He had not studied in any school 



824 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

of oratory, but in this insignificant body was the soul of a king impressing 
itself, as 1 believe, upon his features and carriage in such fashion as to 
make of him a man of dignity and power. He is no ordinary man. He is 
proud of his lineage and reckons himself to have been bom in no mean city. 
He stands in the presence of royalty unawed. He was a man of culture, 
having studied in the schools of Tarsus, and having been brought up at the 
feet of Gamaliel, whose name was known throughout the realm of the 
Jews. He was a man of intense convictions, having truth to possess him 
rather than on his part possessing the truth. When as yet he was a young 
man, he persecuted with ardor the new faith. Perhaps the bravest and most 
honest foe of the primitive church was this Paul. When he drew the sword 
from his scabbard, the scabbard was flung away. He was a fighter. He 
threw his whole soul into his cause. Then comes the vision hour, and all 
the world is changed for him thereafter. 

He sees the glorified Christ. It is no subjective vision; it is real. He 
hears His voice speaking to him in tones he could never forget : "Saul, Saul, 
v/hy persecutest thou Me?" Then, with the ardor of an intense nature, he 
gives himself to the proclamation of the gospel he had once despised. He 
goes everywhere preaching the word. He travels in strange cities and dis- 
tant lands; he meets with all sorts of adventures; he is in perils on the 
land, in perils on the sea, in perils among false brethren. He takes to 
trouble as the swimmer does to the waves, with the same gladness and the 
same abandon. He never makes moan. He is a conqueror from the time 
he lifts the flag and carries it into the thick of the fight. He moves steadily 
onward and forward until the last pean of triumph was sounded when, 
v/ith no modesty, but with a clear spirit of faith, he declares: "I have 
fought a good fight, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for 
me a crown of righteousness," and now, after two years of unjust impris- 
onment, he stands in the presence of Agrippa. The man and the hour have 
met. The great occasion is to find one ready to adequately meet it and 
honor it and dignify it with immortality. 

I have remarked that it was a great occasion. In what consisted its 
greatness? Certainly not in the pageantry and pomp attendant upon the 
occasion. Agrippa had come to the hall of justice in his robes of office. 
There was glitter and beauty. There were accessories that were dazzling 
in their character, but all this was but light and color. An occasion is great 
in itself or it is not great at all. Nothing in the way of ornamentation or 
decoration can ennoble it. These may be, to some extent, an expression 
cf the dignity of the occasion, but they do not at all reveal the greatness 
thereof. Nor was it a great occasion in view of any danger that might 
possibly come to Paul. Remember he had made his appeal to Caesar. He 
must go to Rome for his trial. This was a simple interview between the 
king and the prisoner. Paul's life was not in any wise endangered. It was 
no such occasion as that when Warren Hastings was on trial in the presence 
of that magnificent audience that filled the galleries of Rufus Hall. The 
occasion was great, my friends, because souls were weighed at that time 
in the balance of eternity. That brilliant company was called upon to hear 
from the lips of the inspired apostle the eternal message of the Eternal 
God. They could never be the same afterward. They must be either 
better or worse. The great opportunity with its great call comes, and if 
we do not accept it, we turn away from it with the assurance that we must 
go further and further away from the splendid vision to which it sum- 
moned us. 



EDWARD LINDSAY POWELL. 825 

It was a solemn hour. One can almost imagine 'the hush of eternity. 
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide. That crisis 
hour came to Capernaum when Jesus trod her streets. That crisis hour 
came to the Athenian philosophers when, after giving patient attention 
to the introductory of Paul's great speech, they turned away upon the 
mention of Jesus and the resurrection. ThaT crisis hour came to Felix when 
Paul reasoned of righteousness and temperance and the judgment to come. 
The Roman Governor gave back the feeble response: "Go thy way for 
this time; at a more convenient season, I will call for thee." It comes to 
every man. It has perhaps come to you when you have been called upon 
to face some great temptation. You have been called upon to decide be- 
tween success, as the world calls it, with dishonor and obscurity with 
self-respect. You have been called upon to choose between the right and 
the wrong, between God and all that is antagonistic to His spirit. I do not 
know but that this very hour may be a crisis hour in the soul of some 
one to whom I am speaking. 

But now let us consider the great speech. Buflfon tells us that a man 
is the style. This noble utterance of Paul magnificently illustrates that 
dictum. It was the sermon of a great soul pouring itself out in an earnest 
speech. It reminds us in its simplicity of Lincoln's Gettysburg oration. 
There is nothing in it adventitious or meretricious. There is nothing what- 
ever to suggest the rounded periods and dramatic climaxes of Bossuet or 
Massillon; no marshaling of sentences as in Edmund Burke, concerning 
whom Macaulay says that, in aptitude of comprehension and richness of 
imagination, he has had no superior in ancient or modern oratory. There 
is here no play of the imagination, as in Jeremy Taylor, when he bids 
us follow the flight of the lark or gaze upon the rose springing from its 
hooded cleft. 

The great utterance flows on like a majestic river, unconscious of the 
praise it may evoke and unmindful of the beneficent influence it may exert. 
There is something of reserve power in every sentence. One feels the 
great beating heart of a great man back of this quiet utterance. Longinus 
says that this speech entitles Paul to be ranked among the greatest of the 
Grecian orators. Let us look at it for a moment. In the first place, it 
was marked by a distinctive affirmative and bold tone. Paul was not afraid 
of the face of man. He was never awed by circumstances. He was con- 
scious of being clothed upon with a dignity in comparison with which the 
honors of this earth were insignificant. He was perfectly self-possessed 
when standing in the presence of the Athenian philosophers, and met them 
on their own ground of culture and intellectual ability. He spoke to Felix 
with that intense conviction which marks the master mind, and dominated 
the Governor as completely as though he had been a child; and so, on 
this occasion, when Agrippa is seated before him, clothed with his robes 
of office, while beauty is represented in the person of Bemice, the wicked 
sister of the king, there is the undaunted spirit of a brave, self-respecting 
man in Paul. Every sentence rings like a bugle blast. There is not one 
weak note. It is all bold, aggressive. 

My friends, if the time shall ever come when the tone of the pulpit be- 
comes apologetic, when the preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ shall 
be awed by wealth or fashion, or official position, or what not, then the 
pulpit has resigned its scepter. It is no longer a throne of power. The 
power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is in its affirmative, positive, dog- 



326 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

matic presentation. Woe be unto that man who holds the truth of heaven 
and who dares to speak it in a whispered tone ! 

But, furthermore, the greatness of this speech is impressed upon us as 
we consider the character of the man, the conscious integrity of the orator. 
He says, as he proceeds: *^My life is known to all of the Jews. I have 
nothing to conceal. It is an open book." Never in that life of his was 
there a moment when he was ashamed to have the record read. He said 
on one occasion that which could be said all through his life: "I have 
wronged no man, 1 have corrupted no man, I have defrauded no man." 
He stood in the presence of royalty at this memorable hour, conscious of 
his moral integrity, and, therefore, every sentence had back of it power. 
Say what you will, there can be no great oratory unless there be great 
living. That is true in literature no less than in the realm of spoken and 
uttered speech. One has said that history has ever refused to crown with 
her choicest laurels the brow of genius alone; it must be as pure as it is 
broad. History refuses to rank among its noblest writers Voltaire or Heine 
or Swinburne. It demands that there shall be along with genius the char- 
acter of a Milton or a Dante. I verily believe that no painter can execute 
a picture that is superior to the character of the painter himself. No great 
utterance can come from one who is conscious of guilt, conscious of moral 
v/eakness. The great orators are the men who have had fellowship with 
duty and with truth and with righteousness. I am not unmindful of the 
weaknesses of a Daniel Webster, yet I remember that it was Daniel 
Webster who said: ^The greatest thought that ever entered my mind is 
that of individual responsibility to God." Give us an age of high thinking 
and right living in our national life, and it will not seem strange when one 
Senator in the United States makes a great speech so notable and excep- 
tional that the newspapers commented upon it as something greater than 
had been heard in the Senate since the olden golden days seemingly for- 
ever gone by. The power of that speech was in its appeal to righteousness, 
in its appeal to high living, and its summons to the nation to turn away 
from the base and to lay hold of the choice and eternal and enduring. 

Furthermore, this speech is marked by a magnificent idealism. In 
fact, the splendid vision hour which came to Paul on the Damascus road 
shines in every sentence of this speech. He had seen Christ, and, although 
an intensely practical man, that vision ever abided with him. He was 
never freed from its influence. And so the whole speech is given to a 
narration of his conversion, and the great vision hour of his soul. My 
friends, I believe that the men who are under the spell of invisible beauty 
and truth and righteousness are the only men who can move audiences 
or stir great throngs of people to anything that is really worth while. 
Festus cries out, while the preacher proceeds with his sermon : *'Paul, thou 
art beside thyself; much learning hath made thee mad." So it seemed to 
the cynic, to the materialist. 

To the stolid, lethargic individual, the man of enthusiasm is little 
better than a madman. We who are in the dust and in the valley think 
it altogether strange that one should find any especially uplifting and inspir- 
ing influence from mountain heights. Paul mad? He was the sane man 
in that hour and that gospel which he was preaching, regarded by Festus 
as scarce worth his attention, as the gospel that has shaken empires and 
nations and given to the world a Christian civilization. I doubt not that 
many a noble and earnest life, because it is under the influence of high 
and noble ideals, is regarded by the man of the world as altogether eccen- 



EDWARD LINDSAY POWELL. 327 

trie. The Christian life is sane living. It is normal living. It is the only 
life, my friends, that is in strict accord with the nature that God Almighty 
has given us. 

But now the great orator comes to his final and splendid outburst ; the 
magnificent climax is reached. As he proceeds, it is plain that Agrippa is 
greatly moved, and he cries out, interrupting the speaker: "Almost thou 
persuadest me to be a Christian." Whether he spoke in jest or earnest, 
it matters not for the purposes of this discussion. Paul accepted the state- 
ment as made in earnest, and then he turns to the king and makes the 
most magnificent appeal that can be found in literature : "I would to God 
that not only thou, but all who hear me this day, were not only almost, 
but altogether such as I am, save these bonds." Is there anything more 
magnanimous than this noble utterance? Could anything be more unsel- 
fish? There are certain sentences which have come down to us associated 
with terror and desolation and revenge, as, for instance, that remark of 
Caligula, when he wished that the Roman people had but one neck. There 
are sentences that fairly flame with hot indignation and destructive venom. 
Paul's declaration shines out with the brighteness of the sun, luminous 
with the glory of heaven. To wish one to be a Christian is to wish the 
"summum bonum" — ^the highest good. 

There is nothing beyond, save the reward which comes to the Christian. 
There is in earthly existence no higher dignity nor more magnificent honor. 
What is it to be a Christian ? I am overwhelmed as I try to think of the 
blessedness and dignity involved. I can say this much. It means, in the 
first place, enrichment of life; it means an added power of appropriating 
all that is true and beautiful and noble and good. The same Apostle Paul, 
whose speech we have been studying, said on one occasion: "All things 
are yours if you are Christ's." The man of artistic soul can say: "All 
art is mine," because he has this spirit which can appreciate art. The man 
who is living a Christian life, who has the Christ spirit, can say: "All 
that is akin to Christ in all realms, in all departments of activity and 
thought, is mine." It means that you shall no longer be anemic and im- 
poverished. It means quickened imagination, renewed affections, splendid 
conceptions of duty and of God. It means soul liberty. Here is a stream 
frozen; we say that it is ice-bound. So it is. It is not free, but wait 
until the sun shines upon it and the south wind has made its influence felt ; 
wait until the summer time has come, and see how the bondage is burst 
and the great river goes flowing on to the sea which is its home. 

Here are men and women with magnificent faculties and powers, but 
they are bound by sin, by appetite, by passions. They speak of them- 
selves as free men ; they are not free until these faculties and powers have 
been given a chance to fulfill themselves. No power is free that is not 
in action and in harmony with its nature. To be a Christian is to be a free 
man. Jesus Christ touches the life, and the whole nature answers to 
that touch, and the hitherto enslaved man goes forever free. There is no 
magic about it. Conversion is simply turning the nature of the man under 
heavenly influences to high and noble ends. Conversion is like the tuning 
of an instrument; you do not add new strings; you simply get these 
strings into proper adjustment and relief. We have the same nature, but 
it is that nature under the influence of a higher power touched by the glory 
of God. 

My friends, to be a Christian, furthermore, is to have outlook, per- 
spective, horizon. Immortality never shone as a sun until Jesus Christ 



828 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

came forth from the grave of Joseph of Arimathea. You do not find a 
clear, distinct utterance in the Old Testament concerning immortality. 
You do not find a clear and distinct utterance in any other literature. If 
we shall look beyond with the clear eye of assurance, it must be under 
the leadership and guidance and direction of Him who has brought life and 
immortality to light. The average man is living with the four walls that 
compass him about. He mistakes the dome of his building for heaven's 
infinite blue. He does not know what it is to stand on the mountain height 
and to gaze out into affinity. If you want to know the joy of a great, 
splendid faith; if you want to know something of the thrill which comes 
through glorious vision, then put yourselves under the power and leader- 
ship and instruction of Jesus Christ. There is no higher honor. There 
is no nobler dignity than that of being a Christian. Yet Agrippa has to 
say: '^Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." "Almost" is but to 
have one's foot on the threshold of a palace, and then not to enter. '^Al- 
most" is high, splendid feeling, but no action. ^'Almost" is to die in sight 
of home, with the lights burning and the door thrown wide open. "Almost" 
is to starve when there is plenty of bread and to spare. "Almost" is the 
weakest of irresolution. 

" 'Almost' will not avail, 
'Almost' is but to fail, 
Sad, sad that bitter wail, 
'Almost'— but lost.'* 



JOSHUA D. POWERS. 

[Joshua D. Powers, Banker and President Commonwealth Insurance Co., 
Louisville, Ky., was born in Hawesville, Hancock County, Ky., October 17, 
1844; Member Kentucky Legislature 1873; Collector Internal Revenue, 2d 
District, Kentucky, 1893-97; President Kentucky Bankers' Association 1898; 
elected vice-President American Bankers' Association 1906.] 

PATRIOTIC SPIRIT OF BANKERS. 

A speech delivered at the Annual Convention of American Bankers' As- 
sociation at Denver, Colorado, August 24, 1898. 

A long course of prosperous industry does not unfit those who have 
been winning the spoils of peace, for the defense of their country at a time 
of great national danger, the accumulations of peace being the true re- 
sources of war. Paradoxical as it may seem, the subject assigned me may 
be abridged by expanding it, so as to make it read: *The Patriotic Spirit 
of Bankers of America." So, from the subject thus "abridged," I shall 
proceed to the discussion of the topic. 

Whilst the subject does not question that love of country is general 
v/ith all classes, it does assume the prevalence and diffusion of the spirit 
of patriotism among that class whose representatives are here assembled, 
ancf accentuates its existence as a characteristic thereof. 

Honor, patriotism, reverence, all things which our fathers esteemed as 
more precious than gold, have not departed, but, as a rich heritage, have 
been transmitted to their sons, and stand out as pre-eminently in the 
character and acts of this generation as they shone resplendent in the days 
of the Revolution. Though there is necessarily a distinction between the 
acts of heroism and those of patriotism, they find unity in the accom- 
plishment of high resolve and noble purpose, when uninfluenced by the 
ends of vain glory, -or the glamor of the deeds to be performed. 

So, looking first at the heroic side of patriotism, we see the patriotic 
spirit of those who personally answer the call of their country for its 
defense, its protection, its honor, its glory and its renown. Without dis- 
tinction of party, place, position or section, they consecrate their lives to 
its glory. Some leave the quiet country home with meadows, brooks and 
flocks, giving a fond and perhaps final adieu to mother, sister or sweet- 
Heart, and, with a father's blessing, go forth to return, perchance, no more 
forever. Others, giving wives a fond, last embrace, looking lovingly upon 
the blessed bonds of their union asleep in the cradle, or prattling about 
their knees, little reckoning of the woes that betide them, rush under the 
exciting influences of the hour to meet the enemies of their country. 

We see them in the tented field, alert for every duty, actuated by lofty 
desire, and driven on by a patriotic spirit, eager for the fray, anxious to 
meet and defeat the enemy. In answer to the order, "Forward, march," 
they keep quick and regular step to" the music of the nation. See them on 
the lonely sentinel's beat, standing guard under the quiet stars, or in the 
raging storm. See them at their post of duty, with the missiles of death 
showering about them. See the advance in the face of the galling, deadly 



880 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

fire, as they go, breasting the hail of shot, the storm of battle, the thunder 
of the oncoming foe, the lightnings of hell, to victory or to death. Some 
wildly exultant over the great victory won, others, alas, wounded, bleeding, 
frenzied with thirst, while the stream of life fast ebbs away, dying, dead. 
Where in all this carnage are the Florence Nightingales, the Clara Bartons, 
the noble women of the Red Cross, whose gentle touch, angelic look, 
sympathetic, kindly word and helpful hand allays pain, quiets anguish, 
soothes the soul and gives hope of the future, peace to the dying and con- 
solation beyond the grave? Think you that the spirit of patriotism in 
them is less than in those to whom they are as ministering angels? What 
of all the blare of trumpets, the waving of banners, the pomp and circum- 
stance of war, without the sinews of war, without the money and credit 
to sustain it ? What, then, is the first great care of a nation about to engage 
in war, offensive or defensive — to look well to its finances, and to see 
who will sustain the government's credit and furnish the means with 
which to provide the army and navy and, having provided them, to provide 
for them. Where and to whom does it look? What spirit is invoked to 
work out the problem but the patriotic spirit of the bankers? In this 
glorious land that spirit has never been wanting from the time that Robert 
Morris answered the call and furnished Washington the means to win the 
battle of Trenton, even down to the glorious, though bloody, field of 
Santiago. 

New Year's morning, 1777, Robert Morris went from house to house 
in Philadelphia, rousing the people from their beds to borrow money with 
which to relieve the destitution of Washington and his men, and, early in 
the day, he sent $50,000 with the reassuring message that "whatever I 
can do shall be done for the good of the service. If further supplies of 
money are necessary, you may depend upon my exertions either in a public 
or private capacity." 

Later on, when the public credit was at its lowest ebb and the public 
exigencies most pressing, a banking institution was organized by a few 
patriotic citizens for the sole purpose of sustaining the army, but no profits 
whatever were to be derived from its operations by those who had sub- 
scribed the £315,000 as its capital stock. 

Growing out of this association, the Bank of North America was 
organized by Morris and his associates, who pledged their private fortunes 
to sustain the credit of the bank, and through it were all future obligations 
of the Government promptly met by the patriotic spirit of those early 
bankers. 

When later, in 1812, the credit of the Government was so low and 
doubt and distrust were so great that it was impossible to float the bonds 
of the Government to enable it to defend itself for a second time against 
the aggressions of England, Stephen Girard, the great Philadelphia banker, 
came to its rescue and took millions of its securities and re-established 
confidence and sustained its credit to the end that we were enabled to 
crush the enemy and once more enjoy the blessings and prosperity of 
peace. 

More than a third of a century later, in the war with Mexico, the same 
spirit which had actuated Morris and Girard enabled our soldiers to stack 
arms in front of the halls of the Montezumas, and left us, at the conclusion 
of peace, with a vast and rich domain added to our possessions. 

When grim-visaged war unrolled his wrinkled and horrid front within 
our happy and prosperous land and threatened with destruction that for 



JOSHUA D. POWERS. 331 

which so much blood and treasure had been expended, the needs of the 
Government were promptly met by the bankers of America in a spirit 
of lofty patriotism, and they gave ungrudgingly of their gold for the 
promises of the nation, and continued so to do until, in an evil hour of 
expediency, the then Secretary of the Treasury foisted upon the country 
an emergency money which closed the doors to the vaults of gold and 
inaugurated a desperate game of speculation, the evil fruits of which have 
not ceased until this day. But the patriotic spirit of American bankers 
has not alone exhibited itself in times of national peril and distress as the 
result of war, but has shown its character and strength as well in the days 
of peace. 

Growing out of the conditions made possible by Secretary Chase's 
financial policy, there remained a dangerous residuum in 1894, and, unfor- 
tunately, still remains, of about ^500,000,000 of currency notes of the 
Government for which gold may be demanded, but which, when re-pur- 
chased by the Government with gold, can not be retained or canceled by it. 

Thus there were existing ills for which there was no adequate remedy, 
causing the then Executive, and his most excellent Secretary of the 
Treasury, to protect and replenish the gold reserve by putting upon the 
market ^50,000,000 of bonds, authorized under the act of January 14, 
1875, and subsequently, in November of the same year, to duplicate the 
issue, thus realizing to the treasury more than ^116,000,000 in gold; but, 
in the same period of time, through the processes of this greenback endless 
chain, nearly ;^103,000,000 in gold was drawn from the treasury and, 
within the succeeding sixty days, more than ^69,000,000 additional gold 
was so withdrawn, and, in the language of President Cleveland, "These 
large sums of gold were expended without any cancellation of Government 
obligations, or in any permanent way benefiting our people or improving 
cur pecuniary situation." 

Thus confronted with serious conditions that were fast tending to the 
destruction of our national credit, and seriously affecting our financial 
standing at home and abroad, without the sustaining power and helpfulness 
of Congress to beneficially enlarge the powers of the Secretary of the 
Treasury in the premises, the Executive and Secretary were compelled, 
in order to protect the country and its credit, to make still another bond 
issue in February, 1895. These bonds were negotiated at a premium to 
be allowed to the Government, so as to fix the rate of interest upon the 
amount of gold realized at 3^ per cent, per annum; but, actuated by a 
spirit of patriotism, the bankers who were to become the purchasers, 
proposed to the Government that if they would allay the suspicion and 
deprive the bonds of the uncertainty as to the kind of money in which 
they would be paid, and make them in terms, as everybody felt confident 
and sure that they would be in fact, payable in gold, they would take the 
entire issue at 3 per cent., thus saving to the Government, by the terms 
of the bonds and the price to be paid therefor, $16,174,770; but Congress, 
swayed by popular financial fanaticism, refused consideration of the 
President's very urgent message imparting these facts and conditions, and 
thus the Government, by political demagogy, was forced into an enormous 
ultimate loss over the most earnest protest of a President and Secretary, 
whose high character and sound judgment have never been, and likely 
never will be, surpassed in the history of this Government. 

But now to the conditions that are present with us and the developments 
that have been brought about by the war which has been forced upon 



882 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

US as a rebuke to our philanthropy, our protection of the helpless, and 
the feeding and care of the starving. 

The present Secretary of the Treasury made a visit to New York prior 
to the issuance of the bonds of the Government and, although the threat- 
ened dangers and insecurities of war had caused the people of the country 
to withdraw from the savings banks large balances, and to hoard them, 
and in turn these savings banks had called upon the commercial banks 
for their balances, and money in New York was worth 6 per cent., 
fifteen of the leading bankers of that great financial center called in a body 
upon the Secretary and assured him of their patriotic desire to see a 3 
per cent, loan not only floated at par, but to enable him to make it a popular 
loan, without fear of its miscarriage, they agreed to take the whole, or any 
part, of the $200,000,000 at par. 

With this splendid financial backing, the Secretary issued his call for 
subscriptions to the bonds and, almost immediately upon its announce- 
ment, nearly double the amount of the loan was subscribed for, that there 
might be reassurance of the promises theretofore made, and by this aid 
and assistance of the bankers the loan became a popular one, and has been 
scattered all over the country to those of moderate and small means, to the 
exclusion of banks and bankers. 

But the history of the bankers with reference to this loan does not end 
here. Out of thousands of letters received at the Treasury Department, 
coming from almost every bank in the United States, there was not a 
single instance in which any bank sought to have commissions paid to it 
for placing this loan, but, on the contrary, the universal expression was 
a desire to help the Government and to render any service that might be 
required of them in connection therewith, free of all cost. 

From the heights of Bunker Hill to the bloody crest of San Juan, one 
spirit, animated by love of country, has pervaded our soldiers, whom 
no difficulty deterred, and no danger dismayed, whilst our bankers, in the 
most trying moments, maintained their courage, constancy and confidence 
unshaken, always ready to uphold the integrity of the country at every 
hazard. The great heart of the nation, vibrating in sympathetic tones with 
each patriotic breath, from the North, South, East and West, feels no 
pang of sectional discord, but thrills equally at the unexampled feat of 
that gallant son of Vermont in far-oif Manila Bay, and the daring self- 
devotion of the intrepid son of Alabama in Santiago Harbor. Swelling 
now in grateful recognition of the glorious victory by land and sea achieved 
in Cuba, it mourns the loss of the brave men who suffered and died to 
spread the blessings of free government. Its true heart can not fail to 
recognize those who, unacquainted with the stem and cruel physical facts 
•of war and unallured by its glare and pomp, have ever stood as a mighty 
bulwark, sure and steadfast upon which the Government could at all times 
depend for' help and succor in time of need. 

Thus unalterably fixed, like the sun in the center, this country shall 
shine with unborrowed luster, diffusing its rays of light, liberty and progress 
on the nations around us. 

"Whilst o'er us, one flag shall float. 
One song ascend from every throat; 
That flag, the banner of the free. 
That song, the song of liberty." 



WILLIAM PRESTON. 

[William Preston, Lawyer, Soldier, Diplomat, was born near Louisville, 
Ky., October 16, 1806; died in Lexington, Ky., September 21, 1887; educated 
under the direction of the Jesuits at Bardstown, Ky.; studied at Yale, and 
then attended the law-school at Harvard, where he was graduated in 1838; he 
served in the Mexican War as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4th Kentucky Volun- 
teers; elected to Congress in 3851, serving till March 3, 1855; United States 
Minister to Spain under President Buchanan; entered the Confederate ser- 
vice in 1861 as a Colonel, and at the close of the war in 1865, he was a 
Major-General; in 1867 he was elected to the Legislature of Kentucky, and in 
1880 he was a Delegate to the convention that nominated General Hancock 
for the Presidency.] 

RIGHTS OF SUFFRAGE TO FOREIGNERS AND A DEFENSE OF 
ROMAN CATHOLICS AND IMMIGRANTS. 

A speech delivered in the Kentucky Convention December 15, 1849, in 
reply to Garrett Davis' speech on native Americanism and disfranchisement 
of foreigners. 

I can not, Mr. President, without proving recreant to the trust reposed 
in me by my constituency I have the honor to represent, permit the remarks 
which have fallen from the gentleman from Bourbon (Garrett Davis) 
to pass unanswered in this hall. They have been received with marked 
attention by the House, and the applause of the galleries at the utterance 
of sentiments so pernicious, when eloquently urged, makes me tremble 
for the fate of my country. But, sir, I will tell them before they applaud 
this proposition, to tear away the right of suffrage from the unfriended 
and defenseless immigrant, to pause, for, if it be accomplished, the time 
is not far distant when the pauper will be disfranchised and, by degrees, 
the privilege will be alone enjoyed by the landlord and the capitalist. When 
that inauspicious day shall arrive, when labor lies suppliant and manacled 
at the feet of capital, when the immigrant and poor citizen are alike 
enslaved and enthralled, then your loud applause will be turned into 
wailings and lamentations, and you will curse the day on which you 
permitted the elective franchise to be invaded. 

Mr. President, this is a question which alone is not confined to the 
realm of politics, but transcends it and interferes with the rights of con- 
science. It offers two stabs at liberty, one at the rights of the foreigner, 
the other at freedom of religious opinion; if carried out, it will lead to 
the establishment of religious intolerance and destroy the equal political 
privileges of the poorer classes of society. Politics and religion are blended, 
and the gentleman raises his warning voice to persuade us to forbid the 
foreigner from landing on our shores, from enjoying that equality which 
should belong to every freeman on our soil, and, by the power of eloquence, 
arouses the passions of the worst classes of the Protestant persuasion 
against their Catholic brethren. I will not say such is his design, but I do 
say it is the inevitable result of his doctrine. Oh, how unnecessary, how 
uncalled for! Where around us are the evidences of the mischievous 
behavior of the foreigner? There are numbers of them citizens of the 



384 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

State, yet, when we gaze around this hall, we behold no single delegate 
bom in a foreign land. Has ever a foreigner filled the executive chair from 
the hour when Isaac Shelby was chosen Governor of Kentucky? Have 
they ever filled great and lucrative offices of honor and profit among us? 
Thousands have been naturalized among us and have passed their lives in 
unobtrusive obscurity and peace. They have lived quietly and honestly 
among us; they have contributed to the burthens of the state of peace, 
and they have fought, shoulder to shoulder, with their adopted brethren 
in the battles of our common country. They have assisted us in subduing 
forests, draining marches and building up our stately cities; they have 
fought for us in battle; they have increased our prosperity in peace, yet 
how rarely do we see them aspiring to offices of importance and value 
in the State. These are facts that statistics are not necessary to establisli, 
which none can disprove, for, when we look around us, is there a delegate 
on this floor a foreigner ? Not one. A member of our Legislature ? Not 
one. A minister to any foreign court ? Not one. The danger, then, exists 
only in the imagination, and these apprehensions are mere phantoms of the 
brain. 

My friend from Simpson (Mr. Clarke) whispers that General Shields 
is a foreigner by birth. It is true, and I am indebted to him for the 
suggestion. He was baptized in blood a citizen of the United States on 
the field of Cerro Gordo. In that memorable battle he earned his title 
to the rights and privileges of an American citizen. He fell gallantly leading 
a portion of his own brigade in a charge upon a battery of the enemy, 
shot through the body — a handkerchief might have been drawn through 
the wound — yet it was his fortune to survive. He returned to the State 
cf his adoption, and the gratitude of its people has caused him to be elected 
to the Senate of the United States. However we may differ from him 
in his opinion, never let our voices be lifted against him, for, if he had a 
thousand faults, he has wiped them off by the generosity of his conduct 
and gallantry of his bearing in behalf of our country. 

As Kentucky was the first State of the Confederacy that extended 
the privilege of universal suffrage to every freeman upon her soil, I trust 
in "God she will be the last to commence the curtailing -of that right. 
She was the first to break loose from the shackles of feudalism; I trust 
she will be the last to adopt them. She extended to all classy this 
franchise in the Constitution of 1799. Let it never be said that she was 
the first to abandon that noble determination in the Constitution of 1849. 
This great principle asserted at Danville, and confirmed in the Constitution 
of 1799, has pervaded the Confederacy and mitigated the condition of 
the citizen in almost every one 'of our sister States. It has not stopped 
here. Borne to Europe by Lafayette and those other foreign patriots who 
assisted us in our Revolutionary struggle, it was the principal element in 
producing the first French Revolution, that goal from whence sprung the 
germ of human liberty in Europe. The popular thirst for this very right 
was one of the chief causes of the revolution of 1830 which established 
the throne of Louis Phillipe. It was also the foundation of the movement 
which dethroned him and established the French republic. Never, sir, 
will I agree, in this age of progress and political science, to abandon this 
principle or seek to curtail the right of suffrage by invading it in the 
slightest degree; never will I agree that America, frightened by chimerical 
dangers, should be the first to retrace her steps and destroy that very 
principle which has been our glory, our support, our ornament and strength. 



WILLIAM PRESTON. 836 

Nations have their fits of insanity like men. We know, in England, 
after the usurpation of Oliver Cromwell, and that abdication of the 
Stuarts, the cry of "popery" would throw the whole people into the most 
violent agitation. The dread of the Pope of Rome was at that time a 
national madness. All classes were terrified at the imaginary peril of the 
power of the pontiff and shuddered at the prospect of a restoration of 
papal supremacy. No class or condition was exempted from this fear, 
however idle in reality. Now, sir, when I heard the gentleman, this evening, 
conjure up the imaginary dangers which threatened the institutions of 
America from the Catholic religion and the power of the Pope in America, 
it seemed to me a similar insanity had seized upon him, and as if the 
cry of ^'no popery" was again uttered for the purpose of stimulating the 
angry passions of the Protestant multitude and crushing to earth every 
principle of religious toleration in the land. 

If it be the wish of the gentleman from Bourbon to proscribe the 
Catholic religion as detrimental to the institutions of Dur country, he does 
not propose a remedy adequate to the object. Let him introduce the laws 
imposing disabilities on Catholics which sixty years since encumbered, and 
yet partially encumber, the statutes of England. 

Sir, establish this principle and we have proscribed the freedom of 
religious principle in this State. Establish this and we have struck down 
religious toleration and freedom of conscience ; establish this, and you have 
laid the foundation of religious wars to convulse, to distract and to ruin 
our common country. 

To a stranger, there are two remarkable features in our Government. 
We are the only civilized State in the world which allows a foreigner to 
acquire rights of citizenship within it, and we are the only enlightened 
Government in which the rich and poor, the strong and the weak, have 
equal rights and privileges and enjoy the benefits of substantial liberty. 
The reason is, we are the only people in the world who have erected our 
Government on broad and just foundations — on those principles of 
inflexible justice on which liberty alone can safely repose. But when we 
commence narrowing that foundation, when we commence qualifying those 
principles; when we undertake to depart from those truths, the pursuit of 
which has ensured us prosperity and happiness, we have sapped the founda- 
tions on which the edifice rests. When this is done, the thraldom of labor 
to capital is again renewed, the degradation of the poorest citizen is insured, 
and society will return to that barbarism from whence it emerged. 

Washington was the president of the convention which provided in 
our Constitution for the naturalization of foreigners, and lifted no warning 
voice against it. The recommendation of Mr. Jefferson led to the enact- 
ment of that system of naturalization under which we have lived for half 
a century. At the time of their adoption, it required a residence of fourteen 
years before an alien could be admitted to the privileges of citizenship. 
By those enactments the period of residence was reduced to five years, 
and under these laws we have lived from the year 1801 to the present 
day without inconvenience, injury or complaint. About seven or eight 
years since, however, a murmur arose against them — a movement called 
native Americanism began. Where was the principle of this new party 
bom? Was it bom in the closet of the philanthropist, the study of a 
philosopher, or library of the statesman? No, sir, it was conceived in 
ignorance and begotten in iniquity; it was ushered into existence from 
amid the vilest purlieus of Philadelphia; it was amid profaned altars, and 



336 KENTUOKT ELOQUENCE. 

by the red blaze of Catholic churches. I leave to others the task of tracing 
its progress. 

The blood of the Italian, the German, the Castilian, the chivalrous 
Frenchman, the sturdy Englishman and of the Irishman circulates in our 
veins. Are we improved or degenerated from this commingled current? 
Will this admixture be injurious? A comparison was made between the 
negro defenders of New Orleans and our foreign population to justify the 
exclusion of the latter from the right of suffrage. The comparison is 
unjust. Is there no difference between the European and the African? 
If our own countrymen had sprung from such a source, they would have 
been a very different nation. When Cortez conquered Mexico, the Cas- 
tilian blood was intermingled with that of the Aztec and we see the effect 
of the polluted current in the lepers whom the pure-blooded descendant of 
the Spaniard moves aside with his foot as he obstructs the street through 
which he walks. Such would be our fate if we amalgamated with the 
negro. But admixture with our kindred European races has improved and 
benefited our own. 

We have had a graphic picture drawn of the wretched poverty of the 
emigrants from Europe who land upon our shores. I know full well that 
misery has driven hundreds and thousands from Europe to America, and 
that many are paupers when they land among us; but, in a year or so, 
those very men are no longer paupers. They engage in mechanical and 
manufacturing industry. They apply themselves to cultivating our fertile 
and unoccupied lands, they acquire competency and, finally, they come 
in a few years to be citizen and freeman. Are we then at this day to 
declare we will no longer extend such an asylum to the oppressed and 
unfortunate? We know that by merely disfranchising aliens we will not 
keep them out. They will still come to this country for bread, even if 
we deny them liberty. Necessity drives them, and they must come. If 
they are to affect us so detrimentally, let us draw a sanitary cordon around 
our country and proclaim that henceforth no foreigner shall ever come to 
America; let us, like the duke, decree: 

" * * * If any Syracusan born, 
Comes to the bay of Ephesus, he dies." 

You still permit, you invite the alien to seek refuge in our country, 
you hold him liable to the tax laws, y6u leave him free, but yet you 
disfranchise him ; you deny him political privileges and you create a turbu- 
lent, ostracised and disaffected class of freemen in the State. 

Let the principle that poverty is a crime be established among us, so 
as to disfranchise the foreigner and, not longer after, it will be declared 
a crime in the native bom citizen. But you tell me such a supposition 
is extravagant; that it is impossible; that it exists only in the fancy; that 
no advocate of such a principle could be found on the soil of America. If 
so, I point you to a condition in Virginia, to Massachusetts, to Maryland, 
and I point you to whatever landed property has accumulated in past 
times and to whatever an agricultural aristocracy exists. At this hour, 
the pauper in New York is disfranchised, native though he be, while the 
free negro, if he has property, may vote. The right of suffrage can not 
be too strictly, too jealously guarded. Ever permit it to be infringed by 
the pretexts of power, and the loss is never regained. 

For myself, I will meet this question at the threshold. Let us resist 



WILLIAM PRESTON. 837 

it in the beginning; let us strangle the serpent when it is young, or 
^^'hen it is old it will strangle us. Sir, is there any necessity for thisi 
measure, or is it a pretext? It is a pretext and the real object is hidden 
from scrutiny. This is but the outwork. Wait till the columns of wealth 
and power rush over the rampart, and then, too late, will the freemen 
of America know the importance of this measure. Tolerate this assault 
on the right of suffrage; tolerate as they tell you it is for protection; 
tolerate its being torn from the foreigner who settles among us, in good 
faith, with his wife and children and his kindred, and you have commenced 
a career of injustice which will terminate in burying not only the rights 
of the alien, but of the poor native American also, in that grave in which 
tHe liberties of all free countries have been entombed. 



21 



BENJAMIN F. PROCTER. 

[Benjamin F. Procter, Lawyer, Bowling Green, Ky., was born in Logan 
County, Ky., November 26, 1849; his father, T. L. S. Procter, was a wealthy 
plantation and slave owner; he was licensed to practice law and located at 
Bowling Green in 1873, where he still resides; he has never sought political 
oflace, but has devoted himself strictly to his profession.] 

DR. LESLIE WAGGENER. 

An address delivered at a meeting of the Baptist Historical Society, at 
Richmond, Ky., June 26, 1906. 

The old Trojan of the Eneid, though singing of the arms and heroes 
of his fallen people, and their glory as founders of imperial Rome, yet 
spoke with a heavy heart. He was a part of the things he told of, and 
suffered to remember them. So, to-night, as I tell you of the excellent 
life and character of this Kentuckian who, more than twenty years ago, 
left us, I do so with an intensified feeling of personal loss and sadness. 

Dr. Leslie Waggener, whose life has been selected as the subject of 
this paper, by your executive committee, was my teacher, my friend, my 
brother, in the order named. 

He was professor of English when I entered Bethel College. Our 
fathers were friends, and he gave me a glad welcome. A few years later, 
as a young lawyer, I again met him in his hospitable home, as the friend, 
and later the husband of the young sister of his wife, and again and ever 
he was my friend. 

Dr. Leslie Waggener was born in Todd county, Kentucky, on the 11th 
day of September, 1841. Reared in this atmosphere of pride, homage and 
authority, inheriting the best blood of his country, he could not have been 
other than a Southern gentleman — ^the best and most perfect product our 
country has known, and no combination of circumstances can again produce 
him. His youth was spent in the country, feeding upon and bathing in 
the "all-embracing air," which, Anaximenes declared, "is the soul and 
essence of life." 

His father, Stokely T. Waggener, was bom in Culpeper county, Vir- 
ginia, though the greater part of his life was spent in Kentucky, where 
he acquired large property and was noted for energy and integrity, and 
gave to his children the record of a stainless life. His mother, Elizabeth 
Ross, was the daughter of Elder Reuben Ross, of North Carolina, a man 
of extraordinary mind and wide influence, a pioneer Baptist preacher whose 
name was a household word in Kentucky and Tennessee for half a century. 
After attending several private schools of local celebrity, he attended Union 
University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for two years, and then entered 
Bethel College, where he graduated with the highest honors in June, i860. 
He became a Phi Gamma Delta at Murfreesboro and was always fond 
of that society. I remember with pleasure, when I became a member of 
that society at Bethel, as the chief actor, he made the initiatory lessons 
beautiful and impressive. 

In September, i860, following his graduation at Bethel, he entered 
the Senior class in Harvard University and was graduated the following 
June, being one of the first twenty, or honor, men of his class. 



BENJAMIN F. PROCTER. 839 

He had passed the senior examinations with honor and was enrolled 
upon the list of those who were to receive the A. B. degree at the next 
commencement, when the marshaling of armies and the thunder of hostile 
guns warned the young Southerner that he must decide, and decide quickly, 
to which side he would cleave in the conflict which was now on. He did 
not hesitate a moment. President Felton, great scholar and man, said 
that he should not forfeit his diploma by leaving before commencement, 
and promised to send it to him, which he did during the war. 

A company had been organized in Russellville and he entered as a 
private in Company A, Ninth Kentucky Regiment, commanded by Captain 
John W. Caldwell. He told me that he stood upon the streets and heard 
parlor knights talk of the black-horse cavalry till his soul panted for a 
black horse as the hart panteth for the water brook, but the horse came 
not, and the cavalry did not materialize, and he walked away to Bowling 
Green a private in the infantry. His camp was in the immediate vicinity 
of my home. I have heard him say that his first lesson in obedience was 
taught him there when he was assigned to guard duty, and was roughly 
ordered out by a corporal of inferior social standing. His first impulse 
was to refuse to go, and then, for the first time, it dawned on him that 
he was a soldier, and it was his duty to obey, and he took his musket and 
went out in the rain. When Bowling Green was evacuated and taken and 
Donelson fell, and General Albert Sydney Johnston stood for a fight 
at Shiloh, Waggener was with him and, in a charge of his regiment, a 
minie ball went through his lungs, tearing its way and leaving a ghastly 
wound. When he regained consciousness, he was lying upon his back 
unable to move, with blood running from his mouth. Colonel Caldwell 
came searching for his dead and wounded, and said to him : "Leslie, you 
are shot through the lungs. You will get well. Shields was shot as you 
are in Mexico, and they passed a silk handkerchief through him and he got 
well." 

It was curious to hear him tell of his experiences as he lay wounded. 
A Federal surgeon came by and said to him : "Young man, you will die. 
Have you anything or any word you want to send to your people?" He 
gave the surgeon his name, his watch and the address of his father, and 
told him to send home his watch. He never heard again of either surgeon 
or watch. 

When the retreat was begun to Corinth, and the wounded were being 
moved, his faithful body servant, Tom, looking among the dead and 
wounded, found his young master, left as hopelessly wounded. He went 
from wagon to wagon begging for a place for him, saying: "I told Marse 
Stokely when I left with him, that I would come home with him if he 
lived, and would carry his body if he was killed, and I can't leave him." 
Finally Tom was told to put him in a wagon and he was taken to Corinth, 
and the jostling of the wagon cleansed his wound and he was taken to the 
country home of Judge Clayton, and nursed back to convalescence, when 
he again returned to his command, which had been changed to the Ninth 
Kentucky Infantry, Hanson's Brigade, Breckinridge's division. 

He was with Morgan's expedition to Hartsville, Tenn. He was then 
made second lieutenant of the company with which he enlisted. He 
was again wounded at Chickamauga. He was with the expedition to 
Chattanooga, where the battle above the clouds was fought, and was in 
the retreat from Missionary Ridge. While in winter quarters at Dalton, 
Ga., he held a staff appointment under Brigadier-General Joseph H. Lewis. 
With his regiment, he took part in the engagement at Resaca, Dallas, New 



840 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta (July 22 
and 28) and at Jonesboro. At Jonesboro his brigade was cut to pieces 
by overwhelming odds, and the remnant was transferred to General Joe 
Wheeler and mounted. He surrendered with General Joseph Johnson 
and was then adjutant of his regiment. It is needless to say that at all 
times and places he acted the part of a gallant soldier, discharging every 
duty with that firmness and modesty that characterized his whole life. 
His courage was of that high type that did not need recklessness to give 
it assurance. 

It is needless for me to say to this audience that, when the war was 
over, the servant, Tom, shared the fortunes of his master to the end of 
life. Dr. Waggener owned, while connected with Bethel College, a large 
and beautiful country home adjoining the college campus. On this he 
built Tom a cabin in which he lived and reared a family. On Shiloh 
day, he took a specially-prepared dinner in the servants' eating room, at 
the mansion house, and all the family of his devoted master expressed 
their gratitude and appreciation of "Uncle Tom" by some gift. Tom was 
proud of his war record, and led an honest life. The attachment ended 
at Tom's grave, where his master and his family were among the bereaved. 
Only once was Tom accused of crime. In the absence of his master, he 
was arrested for stealing a hog. His indignation had the appearance of 
guilt. His only response to the charge was: ''Send for Marse Leslie." 
This being done, he was immediately released, and his explanation was: 
"I jest trusted God and Marse Leslie." 

We of the South are proud of the records made by our soldiers in 
gray. We claim, and the claim is not denied, that, as a soldier, his achieve- 
ments, under such difficulties, have never been equaled. Their war-cry was 
the wide-mouthed yell of the fox hunter, wild with the joy of the chase, 
cheering his hounds to pursuit and death. It was heard first at Bull Run 
and Manassas, last at Appomattox, as the survivors of these young cava- 
liers, with jest and songs upon their lips, like the last of the Cardigans, 
rode "into the valley of death." 

The fox hunter's cry has gone down in history as the "rebel yell." 

At the close of the war, he returned to Russellville and began the study 
of law and was admitted to the bar. It is needless to say that if he 
liad continued in it, the highest honors, as advocate, judge or counselor, 
or all combined, were within his reach, but that divinity that shapes our 
ends had destined him for a teacher. He left the law office and took charge 
of the preparatory department of Bethel College in 1867. 

Three years later, he. accepted the professorship of English Literature 
in Bethel College, the first of its kind in any American college. Another 
three years passed and, in 1873, Dr. Noah K. Davis resigned the presidency 
of Bethel College to accept the chair of Moral Philosophy in the University 
of Virginia. This position Dr. Davis has held continuously for thirty-three 
years, the allotted life of a generation. He has done as much of deep and 
clear thinking, and has profoundly impressed upon men the beautiful lessons 
of high living, as any man in this age. 

When Dr. Davis resigned. Dr. Waggener became the responsible head 
of Bethel College, and three years thereafter, in 1876, he was formally 
elected its president. This position he held till 1883, adding to the success 
and influence of the college each year, then resigning to become professor 
of History and of English Literature in the University of Texas. When 
the university was formally opened in September, 1883, Dr. Mallet was 
chairman of the faculty. The Legislature met in special session January 



BENJAMIN F. PROCTER. 841 

8, 1884. It was foreshadowed that an attack would be made on the 
university and its board of regents, and the chairman at once gave notice 
that his resignation must be accepted at the close of the session in June. 

In 1885, another Legislature met and so strong was the hostility that 
it seemed certain that the great university would be reduced to a high-grade 
school, with teachers poorly paid. To the efficient aid of Dr. Waggener 
in furnishing arguments and collating records, the evidence for the friends 
of the university in the Legislature was attributed its success in defeating 
its enemies. A number of able men in the State espoused its cause, and 
some of them were elected to the Legislature of the State as avowed friends 
and made themselves its champions in the debates. At every conference 
their silent leader was there with arguments and facts to sustain them. It 
Is said : 

^'Some of the regents, assisted by friends in and out of the Legislature, 
threw themselves into the contest and, after working day and night, obtained 
a hearing and defeated the measure in the very committee raised to destroy 
it. In this contest none took so active an interest as the able chairman 
of the faculty. As if by intuition, he seemed to know where the opposition 
was gathering and at all times the refutation of every charge was placed 
before the friends of the university." 

In subsequent sessions of the Legislature, Dr. Waggener is given the 
credit of suggesting and aiding in enacting laws giving to the university 
;^1 25,000 of the funds refunded to Texas for defense Df her frontiers; 
giving it possession and rendering available for school purposes the two 
million acres of land set aside for the university, and relieving it of a 
yearly tax upon its resources of ^5,000 theretofore given to another school. 
He lived to see its alumni in the halls of the Le^slature and in places of 
trust and power all over the State, pledged in interest and love to its 
support, and lived to see the State of Texas proud of the university, and 
ready to give to its support time and money. 

In the report of the university faculty to the memorial committee, he 
is credited also with special identification with the change to president from 
chairman of the faculty; and the establishment of the academic faculty. 
They say: 

"Highly intellectual was the cast of his mind. He was ever thoughtful 
and could always give a reason for the faith that was in him. Ht had 
definite aims and expressed them forcibly. Few writers have been blessed 
with a clearer style; few have pressed their measures with equal persistency; 
and fewer still have been so successful in having their measures enacted 
into laws." 

A distinguished State senator, speaking at this memorial meeting, said: 
'in the five general and special sessions in which I represented the univer- 
sity in the Senate of Texas, I was never at a loss to answer any questions 
as to its management or its rights, and for the simple reason that whenever 
the day arrived for the discussion of any bill affecting the rights of the 
university, there was always laid upon my desk by Dr. Waggener a brief 
containing all information that was needed, with authorities and references, 
and I seldom had to ask that a subject be especially looked into. 

"To me it was always a matter of profound astonishment how, in the 
midst of all his duties, he seemed to be always so posted on every move- 
ment in the Legislature affecting the university, as to be always ready at 
the time when it was to be discussed, with all needed information and 
always accurate." 

Here was the blended work of the lawyer, teacher and executive that 



842 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

astonished the law-maker. That his work was appreciated in Texas is 
abundantly shown by the honors he received while living and after death. 
Called there first to a professorship, he received ten annual elections as 
chairman of the faculty and held the position of president at his death. 

I know from frequent talks with him that he felt the hard task that 
lay before him in organizing and establishing a fixed and wise course of 
procedure. The co-education of the sexes was a problem to be success- 
fully solved in this great school. He made it a success. Texas had so 
many great, good and capable men, and he felt his position as a foreigner 
trying to solve for them their problems. This task could not have been 
brought to as happy consummation save for the faithful aid of such men 
as Dr. Wooten, his family physician, the ruling spirit of the board of 
regents, and his gifted and eloquent son, the Hon. Dudley Wooten, and 
a host of other generous, strong Texans. 

Dr. Waggener wrote a great deal. He was a profound student of the 
prose of Burke, Ruskin and Carlyle and of the poets Shakespeare, Milton, 
Browning and Tennyson. He contemplated writing a work upon rhetoric, 
another upon certain plays of Shakespeare, and another upon the history 
of English literature. Much of this work had been done and was waiting 
the finishing touches before going to the publisher. His untimely and 
unexpected taking off ended his work, as well as his life of suflfering. He 
never recovered from the wound received at Shiloh, and the labor done 
by him was in suflfering that would have unnerved an ordinary man. His 
literary work may yet be given, to the world. 

In June, 1867, in Upland, Pa., he was married to Miss Fannie Pendleton, 
daughter of the Rev. J. M. Pendleton, deceased. This most happy marriage 
had more eflfect upon his life, and did more to shape, his destiny, perhaps, 
than all other things combined. It was an ideal union of two congenial 
spirits, with equal mental endowments. 

Warned by his physician that his strenuous life could not last, and that 
he must take a rest, in July, 1896, he went to Manitou Springs, Col., to 
seek the restoring aid of the water and mountain air. The old wound 
received at Shiloh more than thirty years before had joined forces with 
the exhausting demands of his work, and at the foot of Pike's Peak, on 
the I9th day of August, 1896, the tired scholar, soldier and Christian 
gentleman gave up the struggle. 

Two years ago, 1 stood upon the mountain side and waited the return 
of my wife from the home in which he died. We tried, in imagination, to 
live with him his last days and the wild beauty of these wildest of moun- 
tains as he saw them. We went to the church where he last worshiped the 
God of mountains and plains. From the vine-clad church at the base, we 
ascended to the snow-crowned top of Pike's Peak, nearly three miles. 
Passing through and beyond the clouds, we looked down upon them from 
heaven's side and saw that the sun, shut out from below, was shining 
above and turning the black clouds to golden light. We thought that we 
stood in the pathway that his spirit had gone when taking its flight to a 
sympathizing, loving Father, whom he had trusted and served. 

"If some star were quenched on high, 
For ages would its light, 
Still descending from the sky, 

Fall on our mortal sight. 
-So when the good man dies. 
For years beyond our ken. 
The light he leaves behind him. 
Falls across the paths of men." 



DUDLEY S. REYNOLDS. 

[Dudley S. Reynolds, A. M., M. D., Louisville, Ky., was born in Bowling; 
Green, Ky., August 31, 1842; Professor of Ophthalmology, Otology and Medical 
Jurisprudence in Hospital College of Medicine of the Central University of 
Kentucky, 1874 to 1901; United States Expert Examining Surgeon; Member 
American and British Medical Associations and British Society of Arts; Mem- 
ber of seven past International Congresses; Member of Kentucky State, 
Ohio Valley and Jefferson County Medical Societies; former Pre-'jident Acari- 
emy of Medicine Polytechnic Society of Kentucky and of the Mississippi 
Valley Medical Association; Surgeon to the Eye and Ear Department of the 
Louisville City Hospital, 1872 to 1901; etc.] 

GROWTH OF MEDICAL EDUCATION. 

An address delivered to the Alumni Association, and graduating Class 
of the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, on the evening of April 

7, 1887. 

Coming to the chief center of learning in the United States to discuss 
questions of education, I know, requires some degree of boldness, not to 
say self-assurance, lest the memories of Rush, Physick, Meigs and Gross 
may rise up in the minds of those who are assembled in this temple of 
learning to confound my speech and make my utterances seem contemptible 
in comparison. 

The importance of my theme and the interest I naturally hope to 
awaken in the minds of the audience emboldens me to make the attempt 
to discuss, in a few brief sentences, some of those great questions which 
have occupied the greatest intellects in the busiest moments of their most 
important and beneficent enterprises. 

When anatomy was studied in a few of its meager outlines merely, 
and for the most part in secret, there came forth a man named Monroe, 
in the great city of Edinburgh, where Benjamin Rush, Ephraim McDowell, 
Walter Brashear, David Hosack and Ben Dudley received their first medical 
training, and, with the force of great eloquence and a thorough mastery 
of, what appeared at that time, all the details of anatomy, invested the 
dry bones of the skelton with a fascination but little less forcible than 
that with which the immortal Shakespeare has clothed the cowardly assassin 
of Duncan, Scotland's famous king. Monroe was so great in his style and 
manner of teaching that the medical school at Edinburgh became for the 
time the leading medical institution of the world. From that day to the 
present, the study of anatomy has been rendered simple and easy. 

James Knox, an ambitious physician of that time, jealous of Monroe's 
great success and reputation as a teacher, built a hall in Edinburgh and 
established therein a museum of anatomy. To his amphitheater he invited 
the students and practitioners 'of medicine to hear him lecture and witness 
his demonstrations. 

He rattled the dry bones before his audience with such energy and 
spoke with such eloquence, that he soon robbed the great university of all 
its students at the time of the usual lectures on anatomy. This man's 
boldness in exhibiting the skeleton, and even the cadaver itself, for the 



844 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

purpose of demonstration, aroused great excitement, but the earnestness 
with which he prosecuted his work finally won for him that success he 
so much deserved. 

, This may be said truly to have been the very beginning of illustrative 
methods in medical teaching. It was a long time, however, before other 
branches of the curriculum advanced beyond the prevailing theories of a 
few leading men. 

On the 9th of July, 1790, Dr. Benjamin Rush stood in the hall of the 
College of Physicians in this city and delivered an eulogium upon the life 
and character of William Cullen, the author of a new system of medicine. 
Said Dr. Rush: 

"This illustrious physician was the preceptor of many of us; he was, 
moreover, a distinguished citizen of the republic of medicine, and a bene- 
factor of mankind; and, although like the sun, he shone in a distant hemis- 
phere, yet many of the rays of his knowledge have fallen upon this quarter 
of the globe. Dr. Cullen possessed a great and original genius in discern- 
ing the relation of distant truths by the shortest train of intermediate propo- 
sitions. His imagination surveyed all nature at a glance and, like a camera 
obscura, seemed to produce in his mind a picture of the whole visible 
creation. His knowledge was minute in every branch of medicine; he was 
a great anatomist and an ingenious physiologist; he enlarged the boundaries 
and established the utility of chemistry; he stripped materia medica of 
most of the errors that had been accumulating in it for two thousand 
years and reduced it to a simple and practical science." 

At the time Cullen made his appearance as a teacher, the doctrines of 
Boerhaave were universally prevalent; Boerhaave believed all diseases 
depended chiefly on the presence of certain acrid particles in the fluids of 
the body and a departure of these, in point of consistency, from the natural 
state. Says Dr. Rush: 

"Cullen's first object was to expose the errors of this pathology and to 
teach the public to seek the causes of disease in the solids," 

Cullen's theories concerning the nervous system so impressed his 
eulogist that he boldly proclaimed : 

*^No man would ever unravel the operations and the whole nature of 
the nervous system without being forced to acknowledge that the founda- 
tion of his successful inquiries was laid by the discoveries of Cullen." 

The "pathies" and "isms" arose and flourished for the edification of im- 
aginative people. The few facts pertaining to every branch of medical 
education, excepting anatomy and botany, were so scattered as to defy 
every attempt at establishing principles, until finally Billings came with his 
Principles of Medicine, and the new pathology of Simon opened up new 
fields for speculation and experiment. Dissection became a recognized part 
of the curriculum and was openly announced as part of the requirements 
in all the best schools. 

John Hunter's great thirst for experimental knowledge had now well 
nigh taken hold of the world, when Jenner came as the apostle of a new 
creed, based upon the experiences of the humble dairy maids. Vaccination 
as a protective measure against smallpox remains an unexplained fact. 

Presently instruments of precision began to be employed; vivisections 
of inferior animals were made, and the science of biology began to receive 
fresh attention; the humoral pathology, homeopathy, Thompsonianism, 
and all the "isms" and "pathies" paled into so many dim shadows over 
the fields of former conquests. 



DUDLEY 8. REYNOLDS. 846 

The medical student now, instead of sitting patiently by the hour 
listening to the beautiful sophistry with which ' individual theories 
and hypotheses concerning the nature and character of disease were sup- 
ported, has, at length, come to the point where demonstration of the 
theories and illustrations of the methods of practice are demanded. 

The growth of medical education, it may be said, has been slow. 
Twenty-five years ago there were, indeed, but few schools in the country 
v/here clinical and laboratory instruction formed anything like a prominent 
feature of the curriculum. The result of these practical methods of inquiry 
and the substitution of the few demonstrated facts applicable to the study 
of disease has been wonderful. A great and new science of pathology 
is now established upon the ruins of Cullen's popular theory. 

The great Pancoast comes no more to stand before you with buming 
lips and irresistible arguments to convince you of the superiority of his 
method of treating wounds; in his stead, the gifted son invites you now 
to the dispensary and to the clinic rooms, that you may see for yourself 
the masterly touch of his cunning hand in the adjustment of fractured 
bones, or witness his skillful methods of staunching the flow of the crimson 
tide in wounded arteries. You are not asked to believe upon the mere 
statement of your professor of chemistry, whose beautiful experiment of 
the consuming powers of oxygen and the frigid powers of carbonic acid 
gas are, upon the one hand, the life-giving force in the atmosphere we 
breathe, and, on the other, the death-dealing force in the dark recesses of 
subterranean caverns. He does not content himself with telling you that 
carbonic gas is evolved from the mixture of sulphuric acid and carbonate 
of lime, but proceeds at once to the demonstration, and, with the magical 
processes of his art, he compels every member of the class to become 
practically familiar. 

In the pathological laboratory, which is an institution of comparatively 
recent device and origin, you now study in the dead subject the nature 
and extent of those changes wrought by disease. 

Experimental research has at length brought to light the startling fact 
that nearly all of our diseases, and especially the contagia, arise from 
specific micro-organisms, which, although their life histories have been 
studied with great minuteness of detail, can not with certainty be classified 
as animal or vegetable in their nature. A minute rod-shaped body, called 
by its discoverer. Dr. Robert Koch, the chief of the great "Gesundheits 
Amt." of the Prussian empire, the bacillus tuberculosis, is now universally 
recognized as the cause of all tuberculous processes in man and the inferior 
animals. It has likewise been discovered by experiment that this bacillus 
is wafted in the air; that it grows in lymph by preference and, when 
inoculated or injected beneath the skin, it passes into the blood current, 
and there seizes upon the germinal matter, or sarcode of the white blood- 
cell, arresting the cell instantly in its course, causing it to assume enormous 
dimensions, interfering in that way by obstructing the blood stream, and 
presently, when it ruptures, to discharge its myriads of spore-cells, to attack 
in like manner contiguous leucocytes, until the current of blood in that 
tube is arrested. This, -of course, speedily brings on those changes char- 
acterized by heat, pain, redness and swelling. 

Now, when the bacillus is breathed into the air passages, if the whole 
of the respiratory membrane be sound upon its surface, the bacillus will 
not grow, but will find a temporary lodgment in the mucous, and presently 
be snuffed up or hawked out, or coughed up and expectorated. If, how- 



346 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

ever, these bacilli or their spore-cells lodge upon an abraded surface, where 
they gain ready access to the lymph tubes, they colonize and grow there 
and, by slow invasion, the whole pulmonary lymph system may be 
destroyed. With these facts, we are at once prepared to appreciate both 
the means and the reason why tuberculous disease generally invades the 
respiratory organs first, and why tuberculosis as an inheritance generally 
proves fatal to the infant. 

The specific cause of suppuration in wounds has recently been brought 
tc light in the discovery of microbes which collect in groups and which, 
when assembled in large numbers, present a golden-yellow tint. This 
is called the ''staphylococcus aureus," and to some recent experimental 
researches of Professor Comil, of Paris, and Prudden, of New York, we 
are indebted for the demonstration that suppuration in wounds is invariably 
the result of the presence of this microbe. 

Scarcely less brilliant have been the discoveries in chemistry and physi- 
ology. Merck, of Darmstadt, has at last succeeded in producing, by 
synthesis, many of our most valued therapeutical agents, and in 1879 he 
brought forth a new product by this agency, which is now known and 
prized by every ophthalmic surgeon in the world. 

In testing the refraction of the human eye, it is necessary to suspend 
the focusing power in order to secure accurate results. For this purpose 
the sulphate of atropinia, long in universal use, required, in many cases, 
from three to five days constant use of the drug to bring on complete 
suspension of the accommodation, and then from twelve to fourteen days 
were required for the patient to fully recover from its effects. The 
hydrobromate of homatropinia, made by the synthetic method of Merck, 
while at the same time free from toxic effects, is speedy and more uniformly 
efficient in suspending the accommodation than any drug hitherto employed 
for that purpose, complete suspension now being possible within the 
brief space of an hour and a half, and all signs of its effects disappearing 
uniformly within thirty hours. It is likewise powerful in the relief of pain, 
and may be instilled into the eyes of children with perfect impunity in 
solutions of the same strength as are used for adults. 

Further, the manufacturing chemists now separate the active principle 
from the crude drug and prepare our most potent medicines in granules, 
triturates and compressed tablets, all divided for convenient use. 

With the exact knowledge now conveyed to the student of medicine in 
the clinic rooms and laboratories of our colleges, the minutia of scientific 
processes must be mastered and the graduate, armed with those powerful 
weapons of so many exact sciences, goes forth to practice in communities 
where general intelligence makes closer discrimination as to the qualifica- 
tions of the medical practitioner than were made in former years. 

The aid of legislation has, in recent years, come forth as a thunderbolt 
from the people against empiricism and quackery. In this great Common- 
wealth, your legislative authority has wisely ordered that no man shall 
practice without a diploma, duly signed by one of the lawfully constituted 
faculties of instruction in a regularly established medical college in Penn- 
sylvania. In the old State of Virginia, and in some of the other States, 
diplomas are no longer recognized as license to practice medicine, but are 
demanded as preliminary to the examination of the holder who is an 
applicant to practice in such States. 

Now, with these powerful agencies of the law encouraging the efforts 
of able and earnest teachers in the regularly established medical colleges 



DUDLEY S. REYNOLDS. 847 

of this country, there is no danger that too many people will qualify to 
practice the art of healing. There are, of course, many commercial schools 
throughout the country pretending to give instruction in medicine. These 
are found in most every State, and the holders of their diplomas may be 
found in our cities, driving the street cars, washing bottles in suburban 
drug stores, and in many cases pointing horse-shoe nails, or gently guiding 
the brush of paint over the cold brick walls of our houses. With the 
rapidly growing population of this country, we have no excess of medical 
colleges, and there is, like Webster said to the student of law, always plenty 
of room in the higher walks of the profession. In the lower grades you 
shall gradually witness the decay that ignorance always suffers in the 
presence of scientific research. 

In the increased length of term and the higher standard of requirement 
adopted at this college shall come an efficient means of reform in the better 
provision for instruction. 

Do not understand me to say that the practice of medicine itself shall 
ever reach the dignified plane of an exact science. The uncertain tenure 
of life, and the varying degrees with which the vital forces operate in 
the economy, taken together with the varying conditions in which they 
operate, make it impossible; yet, by the aid of experimental study, the 
present generation has witnessed the discovery of the cause of nearly all 
the infectious contagia; and in their treatment the^ ounce of prevention may 
now wisely be ordered. For most of them the pound of cure has not 
ytt been isolated. May we not hope that some of these young gentlemen 
just admitted to the ranks of the profession this evening shall achieve this 
great goal for which we are all striving. May we not hope that, great as 
have been the giants in the medical profession in this metropolis, greater 
genius is now being bent into the same channels, and that the march 
toward perfection shall not be abandoned by a single one among them 
until the devotees of medicine shall be able to establish a universal science. 

Fortunate are you, gentlemen, to have enjoyed the high privilege and 
distinguished honor of receiving your medical education in this noble insti- 
tution ; fortunate to have lived in this age of discovery, and deriving your 
first lessons at the center, may each one of you march through every inch 
of circumference to a brilliant and noble career. 



D. BAKER RHOADS. 

[Tj. Baker Rhoads, Lawyer, Police Judge, Beaver Dam, Ky., was born in 
Greenville, Ky., February 3, 1872.] 

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY. 

A speech delivered at the decoration of soldiers' graves, at Beaver Dam, 
Ky., May 30, 1905. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, especially Veterans of the Grand Army of the 
Republic and United Confederate Veterans, Soldiers, all : 

Upon me has been conferred the honor and privilege of welcoming you 
here to-day, and I believe I speak the sentiments and pleasure of each man, 
woman and child of this little village in bidding you welcome, and wishing 
you God speed and His richest blessings upon the fraternal, exalted and 
noble purpose for which you are here assembled. 

This occasion is unlike most public occasions upon which men assemble 
in this : It has nothing in it which appeals to the selfish pride of human 
nature, but, on the other hand, it appeals to the sentimental, the heroic, 
the pathetic, the sublime, like the eternal sunbeams of God's sunshine let 
through the coating of man's inner nature, revealing him at his best. As 
I look around me, I see a number of gray-haired veterans who, during the 
dark hours of our republic, have been scorched by the summer's sun and 
pinched by the winter's cold, who, with unfaltering tread, marched into 
the very valley and shadow of death, that the principles which they be- 
lieved to be right might live. Most of you wore the blue, some of you 
wore the gray and, on occasions like this, what memories must stir in 
your minds! How the past must rise before you like a phanton dream! 
And, as you turn backward memory's pages, as you look down the dim 
vista of time, forty-five years ago, you behold yourselves once more 
young men, stalwart, ready to face the world and all the opposition it 
might have to offer. But you were not alone; there stood by you your 
brothers, your neighbors, your friends, although, perhaps, unknown to you, 
were soon to be your enemies in arms, or your comrades in arms, and in 
whose memories you are assembled to-day. 

Then comes the shock you hear as if borne on a Southern hurricane, 
the defiant crash of the iron messenger as it strikes the walls of Fort 
Sumter. You see the flag of the Union go down in dust, then, for a brief 
period, that ominous calm that always precedes the storm. Then you 
hear the call to arms, you see the hurried gathering of forces, and then 
the inevitable and mighty conflict is on that was to separate brothers, sons 
and fathers, divide homes and drench this fair land in fraternal blood. You 
hear the call to colors and off you marched from your homes in this border 
land as duty called and, under whichever flag you marched, you kept time 
to the wild, grand music of war. 

I believe that most of the soldiers I address to-day followed the fortunes 
of the army of the Cumberland, or were their opponents on many hard- 
fought fields. To you there is no need for me, or any one else to attempt 
to recount the mighty deeds of valor and heroism of either the blue or 



D. BAKER RHOADS, 349 

the gray on many gory fields. They rise vividly in your memories on 
these occasions. You remember how men became iron, with nerves of 
steel, and how you and they fought and struggled until human nature 
could endure no more. As guide-posts along the way that marked the 
progress of the army of the Cumberland and their opponents, we have 
Shiloh, Fort Donelson, Stone River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and 
many others and the momentous tragedies marking each. The heroic 
deeds there enacted by both the blue and the gray will be sung by poets 
and orators and will live in history and in the memory of your countrymen 
as long as chivalry rears its monument to valor and as long as flowers are 
strewn on heroes' graves. 

In the beginning of the end of this saturnalia of blood, of wrecked 
homes and ruined fortunes, when humanity seemed to have lost confidence 
in itself, there comes, as if a benediction from a higher world, a declaration 
from the immortal Lincoln: "With malice toward none, with charity for 
all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us con- 
tinue the work we are in and bind up the nation's wounds." 

A poet of this border land has said : 

"The coward puts a spurning foot upon a foeman's grave. 
That base blood cry 'Revenge is sweet' came never from the brave. 
And truer manhood noblest shows among ignoble hordes; 
When victors to their vanquished foes hand back the yielded sword." 

The curtains fall upon the stupendous tragedy in the Wilderness to 
rise again upon Appomattox, as if upon a tableaux ushering in a better 
day. We see the chieftains of two of the mightiest and knightliest hosts 
that were ever marshaled in battle lines on this planet. We see those 
chieftains clasp hands in friendly contact; we look again to see the im- 
mortal Lee, that knight of Southern chivalry, offer his jeweled sword 
to Grant, while the world looks on in breathless silence. Alexander the 
Great, Caesar or Napoleon would have been proud to have claimed that 
sword as a trophy of war, but Ulysses Simpson Grant was too great a 
man, too true an American, to accept it from a brother American. 

The great struggle, with all of its suffering and hardships, is past and 
gone, and where is the man, it matters not if he lives amid the vine-clad 
hills of New England, or among the magnolias of the sunny South, but 
will say that, out of the awfulness of it all, has come the ultimate good 
of humanity? 

"The banner of St. Andrew's cross in silent dust is lain, 
And what has been a section's loss has proved a nation's gain." 

I once stood in a cemetery and saw several long lines of graves of 
soldiers who had died in battle or in the hospitals of disease and pain. I 
saw the flag floating above them as it did in battle. I thought that as they 
had once lined up for battle in life, under the starry banner of the free, 
they were now lined up for their march to eternity. I once stood in another 
cemetery. I saw a number of soldiers' graves. I saw there a splendid 
shaft erected to their memory, and thereon I read the inscription, written 
by Kentucky's beloved soldier poet. Major O'Hara: 

"The muffled drum's sad roll has beat the soldier's last tattoo. 
No more on life's parade shall meet that brave and fallen few. 
On Fame's eternal camping ground their silent tents are spread, 
While Glory guards with solemn rounds the bivouac of the dead." 



360 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

I thought how soon this will be true not only of the few who slumber 
here, but all of the mighty hosts who answered the calls of Lincoln and 
Davis. And, soldiers, as you gather on each succeeding memorial day in 
fast-decreasing numbers to pay your respects and show your love and 
reconciliation by speaking words of praise and laureling the graves of your 
dead, think not that when for you the last reveille has been heard, taps 
are sounded, lights are out, that no one will be left to do you honor and 
reverence, but rather be assured that your lives, your efforts, your achieve- 
ments, even your mistakes and failures, were not in vain, but that you 
have left a priceless heritage, not to a race of ingrates or slaves, but to the 
children of a re-united and greater republic, who will hold your achieve- 
ments and heroism and valor in grateful remembrance and as a priceless 
and common heritage that will point us on to nobler things, and on 
memorial days just as these boys and girls, with their songs and flower* 
bent on their kindly mission, just as others are here to sing or speak words 
of praise and comfort, so will the future generations meet on memorial 
day to do honor to your memory as long as our republic lives. 

In the beginning, our republic was an experiment in the art and science 
of government ; a test of the ability of a free people to govern themselves, 
it was at that time thought to be the crystallization of the political wisdom 
of the ages, yet the seeds of discord and disunion were there and, nurtured 
by the passions and prejudices of men, they grew and thrived until it be- 
came the paramount question which should live or which should die, liberty 
and union, or slavery and disunion. These questions being continually 
agitated by the restless and fiery passions of orators and editors, and some 
of them, though deplorable as it is to say, had their own selfish ambitions, 
objects and aims to attain. Issues finally reached a climax where com- 
promise seemed impossible, and the only arbiter was the sword. 

The Eastern world once prophesied that the people of the United 
States of America would no longer fight; that they had lost all sense 
of the patriotism which had brought them into existence as a nation, that 
the dollar was their god, and through their greed for it they would disin- 
tegrate and fall an easy prey to the imperial and military nations of 
Europe. 

The Civil War taught the world a lesson; they saw their mistake and 
then they made another prediction. They said those Americans would 
never stop fighting among themselves, and we can see their finish. Again 
monarchy and bureaucracy were deceived, and the world has about 
reached the conclusion that the United Republic of the Western world 
was not bom to die because the eternal principles of "liberty, equality 
and justice" are blended in the American character as the warp is blended 
with the woof, and when the hour of peril came, and when it may come, 

"Where breathes the man with soul so dead, 
Who never to himself has said, 

'This is my own, my native land.' " 

"Europe boasts her standing armies; 
Serfs who blindly fight by trade. 
We have seven million soldiers. 
And a soul guides every blade." 

"Laborers with arms and mattocks, 

Laborers with brains and pen, 
Railroad prince and railroad brakeraan, 
Build our lines of fighting men. 



D. BAKER RH0AD8. 851 

"Flags of righteous wars close mustered,. 

Gleams the bayonets, row on row, 
Where the stars are sternly clustered 
With their daggers toward the foe." 

We may read the history of the world and we will not find a nation 
that has amounted to anything worthy of our notice, that has ever wielded 
an influence for good in its final destiny, that has not, at some time in its 
career, been rent with internal strife that almost overwhelmed it and 
brought it down to an utter ruin, only to emerge from the seeming wreck 
a reunited and greater country than it otherwise could have been. 

Take, for example, England through its past history, long centuries of 
illustrious achievements. We find upon several occasions England was 
brought down to the very brink of destruction. Take, for instance, the 
"War of the Roses," which kept England in the throes of revolution for 
thirty years. First, the house of Lancaster was victorious, then victory 
was with the house of York. But it matters not with Englishmen of to-day, 
if they really know who are the descendants of the followers of the 
white rose or the red. 

Afterwards came the titanic struggle between the Roundheads and 
the Cavaliers, but the descendants of those who charged with Rupert and 
the descendants of those who formed the iron legions of Cromwell dwell 
to-day, side by side, mixed and mingled as one kith and kin, each rejoicing 
in the new, the greater and better England that has come out of the travail 
of the past and each treasuring as a priceless and common heritage the 
heroic deeds and achievements of their countrymen gone before. 

The United States of America, unlike most other nations of earth, does 
not depend upon a crown, a scepter and a royal family, but it was founded 
and has been nurtured and reared on and by the patriotism and intelligence 
of its people, and upon these, and by these, it must live or die. 

Forty years ago, the last gun of the great conflict had been fired; the 
battle flags had been furled, the issues had been fought out, the questions 
had been settled and settled forever by the arbitrament of arms. The 
shackles had fallen from four million slaves, the questions of the right 
of secession had been consumed in the fire and fury of battle, and then 
great minds and loving hearts took up the work that seemed nearest and 
dearest to the heart of the great Lincoln, who said: "Bind up the nation's 
wounds." It seemed to be his farewell message, as he stood on the brink 
cf eternity. "Bind up the nation's wounds" This has been the civic 
mission, duty and privilege of every man, woman and child who have 
loved their country from that day to this. And how well they and you 
have succeeded was demonstrated a few years ago when the war clouds 
gathered thick and fast and we were menaced by a foreign foe. The call 
for volunteers was made and the sons of those who wore the gray marched, 
shoulder to shoulder, side by side, with the sons of those who wore the 
blue, all under the stars and stripes, down to the field of honor, that an 
outraged and oppressed people might be free and, if need be, to offer their 
own lives on the altar of their reunited and common country. And as you 
veterans and others have assembled here to-day by our little cemetery, 
and as you strew alike with flowers the graves of the blue and the gray, 
you but attest the truth of the sentiment expressed by a poet : 

"Human substance goes to earth whence human passions rise, 
But soul with God Himself had birth, and lives, and never dies." 



362 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

At many cemeteries throughout this land, where so many heroes sleep, 
there assemble each year veterans of the North and veterans of the South 
in friendly reunion, bent on a similar mission to yours, except when they 
have strewn with flowers the graves of the blue and the gray, they will 
turn to place a laurel wreath on the graves of their children, the boys in 
brown. 

Again I bid you welcome. I have but one sentiment for the blue and 
the gray, one sentiment for the heroes living and the heroes dead, flowers 
and cheers for the pathway of the living, a memorial wreath for the graves 
of the dead. 



STUART ROBINSON. 

[Stuart Robinson, D. D., was born in Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland, 
November 14, 1814; died in Louisville, Ky., October 15, 1881; he came to 
New York with his parents in 1817, and several years later removed to Berk- 
ley County, Va, graduated at Amherst College in 1836: studied theology at 
Union Seminary, Va., and at Princeton College, New .Jersey; ordained a Pres- 
byterian Minister October 8, 1841 ; ■ preached and taught for six years at Mai- 
den, Va.;from 1847 till 1852, Pastor of church in Frankfort, Ky., where he 
established a female seminary; accepted the pastorate of an independent 
church in Baltimore in 1852, but resigned in 1854, and with a large part of 
the congregation organized a regular Presbyterian Church; established and 
conducted a periodical called the "Presbyterian Critic" (1855-1856); Pro- 
fessor of Church Government and Pastoral Theology at Danville, Ky., Sem- 
inary 1856-57; in 1858 he became pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, 
Louisville, Ky.; purchased the "Presbyterian Herald" and changed its name 
to the "True Presbyterian." His sympathies were warmly with the South, 
and in the first year of the war, found free expression in his paper, which 
was suppressed by the United States military authorities; he removed to 
Toronto, Canada, where he preached to large audiences; in 1866 he returned 
to his church in Louisville, and resumed the publication of his paper, chang- 
ing the title to the "Free Christian Commonwealth.'' He was expelled from 
the General Presbyterian Assembly of 1866 at St. Louis, Mo., on account of 
his sympathy with what was known as the "Declaration and Testimony/' 
which protested against political deliverances of that body. After having 
animated controversies with the noted Unionist, Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge, 
he induced the Synod of Kentucky to unite with the Assembly of the Southern 
Presbyterian church in 1869, of which he was chosen Moderator by acclamation; 
he was also instrumental in inducing the Southern Church to join in the Pan- 
Presbyterian Alliance in 1877, which he attended as a delegate and was 
active in the revision of the Book of Discipline. He published in 1865, 
"Slavery as recognized by the Mosaic Civil Law, and allowed in the Abra- 
hamic. Mosaic, and Christian Church." He was also the author of "The 
Church of God as an essential element of the Gospel," and of a book of outlines 
of sermons, entitled "Discourses of Redemption." In religion and politics 
he was a fine example of the strict, old-school divine, with a vigor, tenacity 
and combativeness all his own.] 

THE GOSPEL ADAPTED TO THE CONSCIOUS WANTS OF THE 

HUMAN SOUL.— ITS ARGUMENTS, TERMS 

AND AGENCIES. 

"I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning 
star. And the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth 
say, come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him 
take of the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth 
the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these 
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book." — 
Revelation 22:16-18. 

This remarkable gospel of invitation, ^The Spirit and the Bride say, 
Come," has a very peculiar significancy, my brethren, alike from whence 
it is, from where it is, and from what it is. As to the whence, it is a 
message of Jesus back to the sinners of earth, for whom "He endured 
the cross, despising the shame," and comes from the throne of all power 
to which, sixty years before. He had ascended, carrying the humanity with 
Him; and, after His finished sacrifice and completed scheme of redemption, 

22 



864 KENTVVKT ELOQUENCE, 

as developed in the new covenant of His blood, had been already proclaimed 
by His inspired apostles to the utmost limits of the known world. But, 
though now on His throne, there is no abatement of His interest in that 
wonderful scheme of redemption which He has been gradually developing 
through the revelations "of sundry times and divers manners," under suc- 
cessive covenants, organizing the typical kingdom under David, He pro- 
claims himself "the root and the oflfspring of David," now enthroned in the 
heavens as the ''bright morning star," for whose rising faith had longed 
through all the darkness of prophecy. And, in full view of the scheme 
completed by the offering oT the sacrifice once for all ; of the outpouring of 
His spirit; of the complete opening of the new and last era of redemption; 
of the dispensation of the Spirit; of the historic faith, now substituting 
facts actual for the types and symbols of prophecy; and of the church of 
one nation, under the old covenant, He utters this last gospel as the climax 
of all the gospels which God had revealed through the prophets, through 
His incarnate Son and through the apostles. 

This, then, is the gospel according to Jesus ascended, delivered after 
His complete scheme of salvation had for sixty years been in full tide of 
successful experiment. It is, therefore, peculiar to our dispensation. It 
is the peculiar type of that gospel which, without symbol, or altar, or 
limit Df nation, is to be preached till His second coming. 

So, also, it is significant from where it is in the series of recorded 
revelations. It is the last paragraph of the last chapter of the last book 
of God's revealed word. For you will observe that, immediately upon its 
utterance and record, that great seal — written all over, with curses against 
him who shall by a single word add to or subtract from the revelation 
here finished — closes up finally the communications from heaven. That 
it is such a general closing up of the whole volume of inspiration, and 
not merely applicable to this last book, is manifest from the fact that, 
while all previous revelations at the sundry times with a call for other 
revelations to follow them, this closes with no call for more to follow. 
Moses called for a "prophet like unto Him," whom they should hear. 
David and the prophets all call for more glorious revelations to follow. 
Malachi closes up the Old Testament with a call for the coming of the 
"Messenger of the covenant" to develop the old covenants still more 
clearly. Jesus, when ascending, called for the coming of the Holy Ghost 
to lead His apostles into all truth and commissioned them to speak still 
further in His name. Now the last surviving of these apostles, having traced 
on the prophetic chart the history of this last dispensation down to Christ's 
second coming to judgment, without any notice of any more revelations 
to come through this era, closes up the communications from heaven by 
calling for no more, but placing upon the record this tremendous seal. 
All Mohammed Korans, all saints' legends of visions and revelations and 
miracles, all Swedenborg dreams and communications with heaven, all 
Mormon appendices, all stupid revelations, rapped or written by silly 
spirits, are hereby anticipated, excluded, denounced and threatened with 
all the curses written by silly spirits, are hereby anticipated, excluded, 
denounced and threatened with all the curses written in God's book. But, 
before that great seal shall finally close communication, Jesus has one more 
last word to say. In every conceivable form 'of assurance and invitation. 
He had called sinners through all the divers manner of his revelation before, 
yet, still yearning to see travail of his soul. His love seems to stay the hand 
that is putting on the sea], that it may first insert one more invitation and 



STUART ROBINSON. 866 

assurance, lest some poor, dark-minded sinner should still despond and 
despair. And so there was crowded in this last gospel, under the very seal 
itself, that closing communication. .. ^ u • r •+ i 

And when we consider what it is, we must confess it to be infinitely 
worthy of the source whence it comes, and the place where it stands, as 
the climax of all the gospel revelations. "Stay," the ascended Jesus 
seems to say. "Put not on the cursing seal, till there first be put m one 
more gospel assurance and invitation. And make it wide as human 
thought can possibly conceive of it; plain as human language can possibly 
utter it; and cordial as the heart of God alone can give it. Assure them 
from me, David's creator, and yet, as the offspring of David, their brother, 
partaker of flesh and blood; assure them from me, the Day-star of all their 
londngs now, beyond all dispute, risen and enthroned in the heaven— 
that the fountain of life is now thrown wide open and its streams are 
eushin^ forth in all their infinite fullness, with every barrier of approach 
to it absolutely taken away. Tell them that not only have they leave to 
come but every loving voice in heaven and earth pleads and urges them 
to come That my spirit whispers to the depths of their spirits saying 
*Come ' That my bride, the church, in all her divinely-appointed ordin- 
ances cries 'Come, come.' Nay, more, lest it be in highways and hedges, 
where there should be no church ordinances to reach any one, every sinner 
that heareth my voice himself is authorized to say to any other sinner, 
to invite him; tell any soul that feels the thirst not to stand on ceremony 
but self-invited, 'Come.' Nay, more still, lest now some poor, sin-darkened 
soul should stumble at the word 'athirst,' and doubt if bis thirst is real or 
^reat enough, strike out even that and say absolutely, Whosoever will 
fet him take of the water of life freely.' I will be the Saviour of any that 
will have me for a Saviour. Only let him cry in his despair, O Lamb ot 
God, I come, just as I am.' " . . ^ . . ^i.. i 

Brethren I may well shrink from the task of developing this gospel 
according to Jesus ascended when I find all human language breaking 
down in the attempt to utter the infinite fullness and freeness of a 
Saviour's love. Yet I may assist you in forming some conception of the 
great truths embodied in these beautiful approximations and figures by 
answering for you these questions: 

1. What ideas are involved in this figure -of "the water of life ? 

2. What ideas in the correlative figure "thirst" ? u i o 

3 Whatcausesdevelop the consciousness of this thirst m the soul? ^ 

4. On what terms may the soul, conscious of it, have the thirst 

^^^5^ By what agencies is the soul athirst brought to the waters of life? 

(1) As suggesting at once the answer to the first inquiry, it is needful 
only to remind you that, in all the eras of revelation and under all the 
covenants, the familiar symbol for the redemption provided by Christ is 
this living waters to quench the spiritual thirst. Under the old covenant 
with Abraham, the salvation guaranteed in it was symbolized to the church 
in the desert by the stream that gushed from the smitten rock in Horeb, 
and followed them in all their wanderings. For, said the apostle. They 
drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was 

Christ " 

Under the covenant with David, the church was to ang in her liturgy, 
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after 
thee O God." Isaiah, three centuries later, after presenting in prophetic 



356 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

visions of the scenes of the cross and the exaltation that should follow, pre- 
dicts this very gospel of Jesus ascended, saying: *'Ho, every one that 
thirsteth, come ye to the waters, even he that hath money." Seven hundred 
years later, on the great day of the feast, as the priest dipped up water 
with the golden pitcher and poured it upon the altar, while the vast multi- 
tude marched around in procession, singing from Isaiah, "With joy shall 
we draw water from the wells of salvation," Jesus stood and cried, saying: 
"If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." Thus it will be seen 
that this is confirmatory of all the old gospels and that in all cases this 
symbol of the water for the spiritual thirst has reference to the work of 
Christ in the incarnation, death and resurrection. 

It is a poetic synonym for "Christ crucified," the one great idea of 
the whole revelation. For, above all books, the Bible is a book of one 
idea, and hence this tendency to those magnificent generalizations that 
sum up and concentrate its essence in a single sentence or phrase as, 
'When I see the blood, I will pass over," we preach Christ crucified. 
And readily enough may the gospel be thus summed up, since it is the 
death of Jesus as an atoning sacrifice which gives its significance to every 
paragraph of the Bible as the living word of God. Just as, in the physical 
structure, the heart to the extremities is all that makes them living flesh, 
rather than so much dead clay, so the cross of Jesus Christ is the heart of 
the revealed word of God instinct with living truth. 

Nothing, therefore, can be more absurd than the very fashionable form 
of Deism which pretends, while accepting the character of Jesus as perfect, 
to separate what it calls the beautiful morality of Jesus from the gospel 
theology of atonement, so offensive to the wisdom of this world. It is but 
a gospel of Jesus with the part of Jesus omitted. For it is the theology of 
Jesus, the atoning sacrifice, which imparts all its vitality to the morality 
of Jesus as a law to the conscience. Deism may, indeed, carve out of the 
gospel a beautiful ethical system, but, when the work is done, it stands 
forth only as the marble smitten by the chisel of genius into the beautiful 
form of the living being, cold and lifeless as beautiful. Unitarianism may 
carve out of the oracles of God an elegant structure of natural religion, 
but, when the work is done, it stands forth a merely beautifully carved 
earthen vessel to contain the living waters, but with no atoning sacrifice of 
Christ, there is no water of life for the thirsty soul therein. 

"The water of life," therefore, which this gospel of Jesus ascended 
proclaims as now accessible to all, means that provision for the everlasting 
life secured in the obedience and atoning sacrifice of Christ for sinners. 
It is here, as elsewhere, a generalizing formula, expressive of that scheme 
of grace, which, contemplating man as fallen from the lofty estate of 
holiness, conscious of guilt, clothing the sinner in a ri,s:hteousness wrought 
out for him and renewing and restoring his nature by divine power. 

(2) Accordingly, the wants of the soul for which the gospel provides 
are expressed by the term which forms the second subject of our inquiry, 
the correlative figure "athirst" — '^Let him that is athirst come." It is 
peculiar to the gospel, in all its forms of revelation, that it assumes the 
existence, more or less conscious in the human soul, of wants for which it 
makes provision; of disease for which it provides a remedy; of a guilty 
conscience for which it provides peace; of spiritual hunger for which it 
gives the bread of life; of a thirst in the soul for which it is the water of 
life. And on whatever other evidences of its divine origin the learned and 
philosophical may rest their faith in it as divine, the great practical evi- 



STUART ROBINSON. 867 

dence on which the gospel itself rests its claim to be divine is that which 
meets the conscious wants of the human soul — an argument which the 
ignorant and the learned can alike comprehend. The greater part of those 
truths which constitute natural religion — as the existence of God, the im- 
mortality of the soul — are assumed by the gospel to the already known 
and felt to be true by every man, and therefore are assumed as the basis 
of its offers, rather than made the subjects of demonstration by proof and 
reasoning. Assuming that every man in earnest must feel that there is a 
God, the judge and the rewardef of every man according to his works; 
that the soul shall continue to exist, and that there must follow a retribu- 
tion for the sins of the present life; that the moral nature of man is 
diseased and its powers enfeebled, the gospel proposes to expound the 
attributes of God and His relations to the sinner; to unfold the causes of 
the soul's disease and the terrors of conscience, and to point out the infal- 
lible remedy both for guilt and the helplessness of the man. In other 
words, to provide a water of life for the soul, of which "he that drinketh 
shall never thirst, but it shall be in him a well of water springing up unto 
everlasting life." 

Nor should we limit the thirst of the soul, in our conceptions to it, to 
that special state of conviction by the Holy Spirit which makes men will- 
ing in the effectual call to salvation; though, indeed, that is only "thirst" 
which ever truly leads man to the water of life. In a very important sense, 
this thirst may be said to belong to humanity at large, and evinces itself 
in impulses of the natural man under the ordinary movements of the 
Spirit. As there is a sense in which the interposition of Jesus, the Saviour, 
affects the whole race and a sense in which, as the consequence of his 
interposition, the Holy Ghost moves upon humanity at large preventing 
the utter extinction of its spiritual faculties, and thereby its utter degrada- 
tion to a brutal devilishness as the result of its subjugation by Satan and 
the fall, so there is a general sense in which all men "thirst" for some such 
"water of life" as the gospel provides. Dr. Trench, in his Hulscan Lec- 
tures on "Christ, the Desire of All Nations," has illustrated with great 
force and learning how humanity, in all ages anterior to the incarnation, 
evinced this longing for some such provision as the gospel makes for its 
moral and spiritual necessities in the incarnation, death and ascension of 
Jesus. How all its mythologies, all its sacrificial ritual, and all its esthetic 
culture, all its philosophic speculations were but so many unconscious 
prophecies and longings of humanity for a divine-human prophet, priest 
and king. And I need only to remind you how the objects of heathen 
worship were either gods made men or men of gods, thereby signifying 
their conception that the relief of humanity must come from the junction 
of the divine with the human nature. How their Hercules and Orpheus 
stories and many stories of their class hint at their conception that their 
deliverer must somehow vanquish death and the grave, the great enemy 
of the race. How their sacrificial altars, even flowing with blood to ex- 
piate sin and appease the wrath of offended divinity, evinced their con- 
ception of the substituting for the forfeited life of the offender the "life 
which is in the blood" of the victim. How their most beautiful concep- 
tions of the genius of sculpture were the results of efforts to set forth 
divine beings in the form of humanity; how the loftiest conceptions of their 
philosophy were in the efforts to devise some power which should elevate 
and restore from their feebleness the moral and spiritual powers which 
they recognized in human nature. What are all these but so many utter- 



•68 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

ances of that inward thirst of the general spirit of humanity for something 
analogous to that which the gospel provides? 

Indeed, we might at once illustrate and demonstrate the co-relation 
between the gospel doctrines and the necessities of human nature from 
the modern speculative philosophy, no less than the ancient, as related to 
the revealed theology. For so intimate will be found the logical relation, 
that false systems of theology uniformly lead to false theories of the phil- 
osophy of human nature; and false philosophies of human nature lead, 
more or less immediately, to false systems of theology. 

The modern neologists have seized upon this general correspondence 
between the^^ospel and the longings of humanity in all ages, as evinced 
in its mythologies and sacrificial rituals, as a point of assault upon the 
gospel's claim to have had a higher than human origin. With elaborate 
learning, they have gathered and analyzed the poetic myths of the religions 
of all countries and ages to show us how these conceptions of a divine- 
human deliverer, of an atonement for sin, of a victory over death, and of 
a renewal and restoration of human nature, have ever flitted as shadows 
before the imagination or have dreamed as beautiful dreams by the poetic 
souls of the world in all ages. Therefore, say they, the gospel of Christ 
is only a step in advance, a condensation of the shadows in more definite 
shape. Now we admit the premise of fact, but reason to precisely the 
opposite conclusion that, instead of being a shadow because the soul's 
thirst of the world had created shadows before, this must be the reality 
and the substance which cast the shadows. For the shadow can not exist 
without the substance to cause it. And as, when looking down into the 
smooth waters of the lake, we see, far below, the trees and green meadow 
and flocks feeding upon it, we infer, without lookiny up for the proof, that, 
though all we see is shadow, yet the shadow is there because the reality 
is above ; so, when we contemplate these shadows reflected to the yision 
of the human soul, during all time, we infer that some reality somewhere 
causes the shadows to exist; and when now we find in this revelation of 
Jesus the counterpart of all these shadowy conceptions as great facts sub- 
stantially existing, we naturally conclude that the existence of such facts 
has caused the shadows. The shadows and shifting cloud palaces that 
floated on the world's spiritual sky became, through Jesus Christ, the real 
city of God — Jerusalem come down out of heaven and standing stable 
on earth. The ladder of the world's night visions, reaching from earth 
to heaven, with superhuman beings, gods many and demigods many, as- 
cending and descending upon it, is realized in the coming forth of Jesus 
from the bosom of the Father to declare Him and through Him ascending 
and descending of "ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them which 
are heirs of salvation." 

Hence the ineffable folly and effrontery of these transcendental sophists 
who, affecting to regard all historical and external religion as a clog upon 
the lofty devotional flights of its spiritual insight, say to us: "Destroy 
this temple, and in three days we will raise it up" a far more gorgeous 
spiritual temple for the worship of the soul in which shall be celebrated 
the rites of the absolute and universal religion. What is their proposition 
in effect but to ask us to turn away from the fountain of living water and, 
with the heathen, struggle to quench the thirst of the fascinating soul at 
the shadowy rivers and lakes which have ever been projected to the view 
of thirsty men upon the spiritual horizon of humanity from the reality of 
lying far out of sight. 



STUART ROBINSON. 359 

I have extended these illustrations rather for the 'sake of impressing 
a great general truth too much overlooked than because I take the primary 
or chief reference of this "thirst" in the gospel of Jesus ascended to be 
the general want, felt by humanity at large, of something analogous to 
the provision of the gospel. And because, also, with this general truth in 
mind, we can the more readily appreciate the force and beauty of the 
figure "athirst" as applied to that state of the individual soul to which special 
reference is had in the saying, "Let him that is athirst come." 

(3) This leads to our third proposed inquiry, into the causes which 
develop this consciousness of thirst in the individual soul to which reference 
is here specially made. These are natural and supernatural. 

A first natural cause tending to such a result is the consciousness, in 
every intelligent spirit, of instincts that fail to be met by corresponding 
provisions in the nature of the life that now is, and of powers of action 
and tendencies to action which have no theater wide enough in the present 
life for this proper development. Every man who reflects at all on his 
inner nature discovers in himself a singular paradox — ^the powers of a 
giant fettered within the limits of a cradle; passions that find no corre- 
sponding objects in life upon which to expend their energies; ideals of heroic 
life that he can not actualize. Hence the restlessness of the human spirit, 
never content with the attained, but ever gazing forward and eagerly grasp- 
ing at the unattained. Hence the peculiar tendency of man above all other 
animals to excessive indulgence of the merely sensual appetites. It is 
simply the attempt to feed the hungry soul "on the husks that the swine 
do eat;" to satisfy that spirit with bread alone, "which was made to feed 
upon every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." And even 
among the few who rise above these grosser conceptions and grasp after 
fame as men of wealth, of learning, of high position, there is in the end 
always the same disappointment. 

On the back of these again come those impulses of the natural con- 
science which, though ordinarily it may sleep, is often aroused by the 
fall into some unusual sin or the coming in of some unusual sorrow. It 
alarms the fears by suggesting retribution in store and an angry God who 
sees the sin with special displeasure. 

Now, while this gospel according to Jesus ascended, extends to all these 
caseSj yet it has specially in view this last case of the earnest soul, under 
the movlngs of the spirit, thus ''thirsting" for that which will relieve its 
thirst. 

(4) And on what terms now may such have relief? On no other 
than simply to take it "freely." "Freely" is the answer of the gospel of 
Jesus ascended. As I have shown you before — ^even after putting the 
offer in terms so wide as to say, "Let him that is athirst come" — ^the com- 
passionate Saviour, as the last words that shall ring from heaven in the 
sinner's ears through all our dispensation, proclaims still more absolutely, 
"Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." No matter who 
he be, no matter how great his guilt, no matter how depraved his nature, 
no matter how dark and damning the stain of sin upon his soul ! Brethren, 
I have shown you in a former discourse how all the expressions of the 
terms of salvation in the gospel of Jesus incarnate and of his apostles, 
whether literal or figurative, when reduced to their last analysis, amount to 
this, that, whosoever will, may come. And now we have in the last 
gospel of all, the gospel of Jesus ascended, and the last of that gospel, the 
direct confirmation of that argument. The climax of all the gospels 



810 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

preached from Abel to Abraham, and from Abraham to David, and from 
David to Jesus incarnate, and from the Jesus incarnate to the last of His 
apostles, the climax of all, the key to all, let him take of the waters of life 
freely. Surely, this is enough ; nor can human thought conceive or human 
language utter any oflfer freer than that. But the compassion of Christ 
for lost sinners is not exhausted with the throwing open of the fountain 
of life, saying, ''Whosover will, let him take freely." Had it been left 
thus, no sinner would have been saved. He hath devised a system of 
agencies to "draw all men unto him," as he is thus "lifted up" and the foun- 
tain of life opened. 

(5) What are these agencies.? They are, again, both natural and 
supernatural. In the first place, availing himself of the power of human 
sympathy, he constitutes every sinner "that heareth" and thereby quenches 
his own thirst, a missionary to tell others also to come. The very act 
whereby he is created anew awakens in him the desire, "O, that all would 
believe." So that, surrounding every sinner wherever this gospel has 
been preached, there are those that can testify by experience to its efficiency 
as a means of quenching the ^'thirst." Is there not reason to fear, brethren, 
that this agency of personal effort is not employed as extensively as, under 
the terms of this gospel, it would seem to be authorized and enjoined? 
Is there not too much timidity, on the part of many who have truly heard, 
about permitting the natural impulses of the new life to have free course 
in uttering the invitation, ^'Come" ? 

In the next place, the results of this scheme of salvation are organized 
by Christ into a great body, whose chief function it is to extend the invita- 
tion. The Church of God, the bride of the Lamb, saith "Come." This 
is the sum and substance of all her ordinances. 

The one grand mission of the church on earth is to hold forth this 
water of life in the view of perishing sinners and cry, "Come." And, 
organized as this peculiar body is of "the families that call on the name 
of the Lord," many of you find your life so woven into the web of other 
lives about you that every holy tie which binds you to earth is a cord 
about you to draw you to the fountain of life. Not only the voice of the 
venerated pastor of youth, in the word, sacraments and prayer, a voice 
of authoritative invitation, but the voice of personal affection, of Sabbath 
teacher, friend, father, mother, wife, sister, brother, child, are all to you 
voices of special and perpetual invitation. 

And if fretted by the importunity of the voices from the bride on 
earth you seek to retire within yourself, then, in your deepest solitude, 
comes the voice of the bride, as the redeemed church in heaven, that voices 
of personal invitation whisper thence to your spirit also. It may be the 
whisper of the venerated father, now at rest from the toils, gently chiding 
you as he used kindly to chide your folly, saying: "Why forsake the 
fountain of living waters for broken cisterns that can hold no water ?" Per- 
haps it is the mother's soft voice that so fascinated the ear of your child- 
hood with her cradle song of Jesus that now seems to awake with familiar 
strain : 

"Delay not I Delay not! O loved one, draw near; 
The waters of life are still flowing for thee." 

Thou, doting father, perhaps it is the voice of the cherub boy, whose 
Sabbath school choral once so charmed thee, now singing to soothe and 
comfort thee: 



STUART ROBINSON, 861 

"Jesus the Saviour in mercy said 'come,' 
Joyfully, joyfully haste to thy home!'' 
Death with his arrow indeed laid me low. 
But, safely with Jesus, I feel not the blow. 
Jesus hath broken the bar of the tomb, 
Joyfully, joyfully, I have got home." 

Thou, sad sister, perhaps it is the noble brother, whose sun went down 
ere yet it was noon and who, wrapping himself in the robe of his manly 
beauty, lay down to sleep in Jesus, that now beckons thee to come and 
"take of the water of life," that thou mayest walk with him on the banks 
of the river of life. Or thou, brother, it may be that sister, who parted 
with thee at the river of death, waving back so cheerfully her farewells, 
that is now waving the invitations from the river of life. 

Thou weeping Rachel, it may be the little one for whom thou art 
refusing to be comforted, that from that glorious kingdom of heaven 
stretches its eager hands, with the immortal smile upon its countenance, 
calling to thee, '^Come, mother, come! Come, learn the love of Jesus, 
who took me from your arms to His own; come up here where they 
never die any more, and never cry any more. Come! just taste this 
water of life, for they who taste it never thirst any more!" Yes, the 
bride saith come, on earth and heaven alike. Yet, alas, such is the power 
of sin in the soul, even in the thirsty soul, that all these eloquent voices 
of invitation are unavailing in themselves. But the same love which 
opened the fountain of life hath provided an agency of persuasive power 
enough to "make them willing in the day of His power." For, in addition 
to these natural agencies, "The Spirit saith come." 

Brethren, having no space now left for any adequate development of 
the great gospel doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit in persuading and 
enabling sinners to embrace Jesus Christ, offered here as the water of 
life so freely, I may, with a single explanatory remark, appeal simply to 
your own experience for the testimony to the reality of this as of the 
natural agencies moving sinners to accept the oflfer. The teaching of the 
gospel is that, while the work of the Holy Spirit is supernatural in opening 
the blind eyes and renewing the will and persuading the soul to willing- 
ness. He yet, ordinarily, operates through the natural avenues of approach 
to the soul. "Behold," saith He, "I stand at the door and knock." He 
makes use of the usual method of gaining admittance, operating in and 
through the agencies already described. Hath He not, therefore, often 
said to you, "Come"? In those deep and solid impressions which the 
truth hath made ofttimes, in that impulse that led you to resolve to 
accept the oflfer, in those solemn providences which so impressed you, in 
those movings of conscience charging you with sin, in those uneasy long- 
ings for something better, and that dissatisfaction with yourself, it was the 
Spirit saying, "Come.*' O, heed the voice and grieve Him not away! 



MICAH CHRISMAN SAUFLEY. 

[Micah Chrisman Saufley, Lawyer, Jurist, Stanford, Ky., was born in 
Monticello, Wayne County, Ky., May 13, 1842; former Associate Justice of 
the Supreme Court of Wyoming; now judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Dis- 
trict of Kentucky.] 

BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE. 

An address delivered at the unveiling of the monument erected by the 
State of Kentucky, on the battlefield of Perryville, to the Confederate soldiers 
who are buried there, at Perryville, Boyle County, Ky., October S, 1902. 

Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

Today is the fortieth anniversary of the battle of Perryville, and this 
fair landscape whose smiling fields and peaceful homes are spread before 
and around us was the scene of that fierce and bloody conflict. Here 
where we stand, on the 8th day of October forty years ago, amid the 
crash of musketry and the thunder of cannon and the wild battle cries 
of clashing squadrons, the curtain fell on the close of one of the most 
dramatic and stirring campaigns of the great war between the States. 

The South was making, as the sequel showed, her last desperate 
struggle for the possession and mastery of Kentucky, and on this spot at 
the close of that October day this great stake, greatly played for, was in 
the wager of battle lost forever to the Confederacy. Forty years ago! 
A generation has been bom since that day and its men and women have 
reached life's high noon and are themselves the fathers and mothers of still 
another oncoming generation. To these, in the swift rush and succession 
of modern events, the battle here and the war of which it was one of 
the incidents are already ancient history. Even to us, the ever and swiftly- 
lessening survivors of that day, its events are becoming as shadowy as 
the scenes and faces we see in dreams. Their outlines grow dimmer as 
the effacing years go by and over us and, best of all, their bitterness, their 
power to call back to our hearts the hatred, the horror and the despair of 
that tremendous epoch is wholly gone and forever. It may be appropriate, 
therefore, to the day and the occasion to call up again the heroic story 
of this old Kentucky battlefield and the series of events of which it was the 
consequence and the culmination. In the light of the fuller and later 
knowledge which is now accessible to all through the collected official re- 
ports of both sides, and with judgment cleared and chastened by the long 
lapse of years, we may surely now do this without offense to the sensi- 
bilities of the living andf without wrong to the memory of the dead. 

In the early summer of 1862, the fortunes of the Confederacy in the 
West were seemingly at their lowest ebb. Donelson had fallen and the 
gallant troops which defended it were prisoners of war. Shiloh had been 
fought, but in the hard-won victory there, by the untimely death of the 
great Kentuckian, Albert Sidney Johnston, in the very moment of triumph, 
had been converted into a defeat. Nashville, too, and Memphis had fallen, 
and all Tennessee west of the Cumberland Mountains was in the posses- 
sion of the Federal forces. So, likewise, was Missouri and the State of 
Arkansas north of the Arkansas river. So, also, were Northern Alabama 



MICAH CHRI8MAN SAUFLEY. 863 

and Northern Mississippi, and the great river itself was. patrolled by Union 
gun-boats from its source to Vicksburg and from Port Hudson to the Gulf. 
The mountains of East Tennessee, affording the only means of communi- 
cation between the capital at Richmond and the great Southwest, were 
still held by a small force of Confederates under Kirby Smith, and the 
remainder of the army of the West, less than 45,000 men, all told, was 
at Tupelo, Miss., under Bragg. This army, as was the case of all the 
Southern armies, was badly armed, insuificiently fed and illy clothed. It 
was confronted by Halleck at Corinth with a host of more than one hun- 
dred thousand men, superbly armed and equipped, the three great army 
corps into which it was divided being led, respectively, by Buell, Grant 
and Pope. The immediate task before this confident and overwhelming 
force, and it seemed easy of accomplishment, was the occupation of East 
Tennessee, where Kirby Smith's gallant little band was already beleaguered 
and hard pressed by George W. Morgan, the holding of Bragg at bay in 
the swamps of Mississippi until this occupation was effected and then, with 
united columns, an irresistible triumphal march to the Atlantic, the sever- 
ance of Richmond from the remainder of the South and the final death 
blow to the rebel government. All this was to be brought about before 
the close of the summer. To this end. Pope was left at Corinth to watch 
and hold Bragg. Grant was sent to Memphis to double-rivet the shackles 
in Western Tennessee and to aid the forward movement of Curtis in Ar- 
kansas. To Buell was entrusted the execution of the main purpose of this 
general movement. With 60,000 men, and banners flying bravely over 
them, he took up the line of march eastwardly, through Mississippi and 
North Alabama, to effect the first object determined upon, the destruction 
of Kirby Smith and the redemption of East Tennessee. This, I have said, 
seemed easy. To those who did not know the dauntless temper of the 
Southern soldiers, it seemed certain. Bragg, while not a great soldier, was 
a most intrepid and active one, and his army — an "army of tattered uni- 
forms but shining muskets" — was as brave a one as ever faced into line 
of battle. Smith, also, was a trained and accomplished officer, whose great 
merit has never been adequately recognized. To his daring and fertile mind 
was due the first suggestion of the broad and splendid plan of campaign 
which was at this juncture decided upon. Both he and Bragg knew that 
a defensive campaign offered no hope whatever. Both knew that the 
only possibility of escape from the imminent peril of the situation lay 
in a prompt and resolute offensive. Bragg' s original plan had been to 
strike Buell' s flank while moving through Alabama or Tennessee and, by 
a bold strike delivered at some unguarded moment, both checkmate the 
movement on Knoxville and recover Nashville and Middle Tennessee. 
After conference with General Smith, this plan was both modified and 
broadened and, finally, ripened into one of the most brilliant and daring 
conceptions of the war. It was, in brief, to leave a small force in Missis- 
sippi to amuse Pope, a vain-glorious braggart, whose true measure had 
even then been taken by the Confederates, while Bragg, boldly swinging 
loose from his base, should move by interior lines secretly and rapidly to 
Chattanooga in advance of Buell, and from that point, marching by his 
front and flank, push on over Walden's Ridge and through Sparta into 
the heart of Kentucky. At the same time, Kirby Smith was to elude the 
garrison at Cumberland Gap, pass into Kentucky through Big Creek and 
Rogers' Gap and unite with Bragg in Central Kentucky for a decisive bat- 
tle with Buell, who would, it was anticipated, be compelled to follow. It 



864 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

was hoped that these counter moves would not only disconcert the plans 
of the Federal commanders, but force them to abandon all territory south 
of the Ohio and, for the protection of their own States on the border, accept 
battle at a place and time of the South's own choosing. 

The plan thus outlined was vigorously and instantly put in process of 
execution. Desperate as the undertaking seemed, it would have been so in 
very truth but for one advantage which the South held over the North. 
This was the incomparable superiority of her cavalry. No bolder horse- 
men ever followed pennon in fight or foray than the men who rode 
with Bedford Forrest, of Tennessee, and with that knightliest of all cavaliers, 
our own Morgan. They were the flower of the Southern youth, who had 
been taught from childhood, like the nobles of ancient Persia, "to ride, to 
shoot and to speak the truth." The opposing cavalrymen were at this 
period ludicrously impotent either to meet them in fight or escape them by 
flight. To this arm of the service it was now given to perform an ines- 
timable service to the cause of the Confederacy. 

All along the lines, the trumpets called to boots and saddles. On the 
instant the men were mounted and away. On the instant they swarmed 
en the front, on the rear and the flanks of Buell's advancing columns. 
Forrest, dashing into Middle Tennessee, audaciously attacked and captured 
Murfreesboro on the l3th day of July. The garrison of 1,500 men sur- 
rendered without condition and Buell's way was effectively blocked for 
many precious days. In the same month, Morgan swooped like an eagle 
on the scattered-out posts and military depots in Kentucky, diverting 
detachments in hot haste from Buell's camps, spreading consternation even 
to the gates of Washington and paralyzing the parlor generals who then 
lorded it along the Ohio. Returning from that famous raid, the bare 
official reports of which read more like a chapter of romance than a sober 
chronicle of history, he delivered, in August, in the capture of Boone and 
the route and capture of Richard Johnson at Gallatin, Tenn., another 
stinging blow to the enemy. Bewildered by these incessant attacks at points 
the least expected, Buell's triumphant advance at length wavered and 
halted. Bragg's opportunity had come. Hidden and protected by an 
impenetrable screen of unsleeping horsemen, the transportation of his army 
by the long, devious and perilous route from Mississippi to Kentucky was 
successfully accomplished. Buell, out-maneuvered, was passed, and the 
Southern army, straining like a stag-hound at the leash, was on the borders 
of the Bluegrass. Kirby Smith, with 12,000 men, had already, in pur- 
suance of his part of the plan, penetrated and traversed Southeast Ken- 
tucky and, contemptuously leaving George Morgan in his rear, had routed 
Nelson at Richmond, capturing 5,000 of his men and had, by this brilliant 
feat, liberated all Kentucky east of Louisville and south of Cincinnati. 
Bragg, with 32,000 men of all arms, shortly reached Munfordville, Ky., 
and captured at that place Wild'er's entire force of 4,000 on the 17th of 
September. 

Buell, on parallel lines, was in the meantime straining every nerve 
to elude Bragg, though he outnumbered him two to one, and to beat him 
in the race for Louisville and for reinforcements which awaited him there. 
This goal he succeeded in reaching September 29th. Bragg had by this 
time advanced as far north as Bardstown, while Smith was in the vicinity 
of Frankfort. 

Thus far the Confederate plans had prospered almost beyond expec- 
tation. The great armies of Buell and George W. Morgan had been forced 



MICAH CHRISM AN 8AUFLEY. 366 

into hasty and disordered retreat. Tennessee was free, except along the 
fringe of the Mississippi. Kentucky was free, except along the fringe of 
the Ohio. Buell's army of 60,000, disheartened and demoralized by a 
long and unlooked-for retreat, was cowering at Louisville. Bragg, with 
only 40,000 men, it is true, but they elated with hope, stripped for battle 
and eager for it, confronted him from Bardstown and Frankfort. It really 
seemed that splendid endeavor might now be crowned with splendid success. 
It really seemed as if the flag of the South had come to stay, and that 
the war in the West would be shifted from Southern to Northern fields 
and firesides. But it had not been so ordained. It was not to be. Let 
there be no words of censure for the Confederate commander. They 
would be both unjust and ungrateful. He was a distinguished officer, who 
had rendered and who continued to render, valiant service to his country. 
He was a trained soldier of high intelligence and undoubted courage, but, 
unfortunately, he lacked the clairvoyant vision, the never-erring judgment 
of a captain of the first rank. The prayer at that hour of every Southern 
heart might well have been : *'Oh, for one gleam at the column's head of 
the divine fire we call genius! Oh, for the eye of fire and the hand of 
steel of a Lee! Oh, for an hour of Stonewall Jackson!" The opportunity 
labored and prayed for had come, but not the man. 

On the 1st day of October, Buell, who had recovered breath and 
courage, moved out from Louisville on BardstO'wn, making a feint at the 
same time with Sills' division on Frankfort. From his own report, he 
mustered 58,000 men. Bragg's left wing under Polk was withdrawn from 
Bardstown to Perryville. Deceived to the last by the demonstrations on 
Frankfort, he believed that Buell's objectives were that point and Lexington, 
and purposed to give him battle at or near Versailles. Buell, on his part, 
supposed that Bragg's stand would be made at Harrodsburg and pushed 
his right wing, under McCook and Gilbert, toward Danville by way of 
Perryville, gallantly designing to throw himself on the Confederate rear. 
Neither general seemied able to fathom the design of the other. The 
movements of both were but gropings in the dark,"and the final encounter 
at Perryville was not expected nor designed by either. It was in truth 
a chance-medley rather than a pitched battle, and the result of a great 
campaign and the fate of a great State were determined by an accidental 
encounter in which only one-third of the Southern army and two-thirds 
of the Northern army were engaged. Crittenden's fine corps was absent 
from Buell's fighting line, as was Buell himself. Withers' splendid division 
of Alabama, Mississippiahs and South Carolinians, and Kirby Smith and 
Forrest and John Morgan were away from Bragg ten, twenty, forty miles, 
in all 25,000 idle and useless men. It is easy, after the event, to see that, 
if Bragg could have grasped the situation and had concentrated his full force 
at Perryville, Buell would have sustained a crushing defeat, and the highest 
hopes of the South would have been realized. 

And thus it was that the crowning fight of the Kentucky campaign 
of 1862 came to be fought near this pleasant little city of Perryville. 
On that October day, the Tennesseans and Texans on the right under Polk, 
the Mississippians, Alabamians and Georgians on the center and left under 
Hardee, in all counting but 15,000 men, found themselves facing McCook 
and Gilbert in command of 35,000 Federals. The odds were more than 
two to one, but there was no hesitation, no faltering with the men in 
gray — when, on what field, were they known to falter? At two o'clock 
in the afternoon, at the sound of the signal, Cheatham and Wharton from 



366 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

the right sprang to the assault. They were greeted with a terrific fire of 
musketry and artillery, but their impetuous onset never paused for a 
moment. Then the guns of Hardee and Buckner and Liddell, rolling from 
right to left, took up the battle and soon the opposing armies were clinched 
in death grapple along the entire line. For three hours, the combat raged 
with unslacking fury. For three murderous hours, the thin, gray lines of 
the South, never resting, never pausing, pressed back the stubborn horde 
in their front. The Federals — there were no cowards, we may be sure. 
They were of that sturdy stock that had subdued and peopled the great 
regions of the West, and they fought on that day with a steadiness which 
would have won against any other foe. But the headlong courage, the 
desperate audacity of these sons of the South would take no denial. 
Never faltering, step by step, the South pressed forward. Sullenly, but 
still step by step, the North recoiled until, at the going down of the sun, 
which was also the ending of the battle, the victorious cross of the Con- 
federacy waved in triumph over every inch of the field. At the self-same 
moment, it has been remembered by the chroniclers of that day that, as the 
sun, reddened and dimmed by the smoke of the conflict, went down in the 
west, a full-orbed moon rose in placid splendor in the east. It rose to 
look down upon, though not the greatest, the bloodiest field of the war. 
It rose to look down upon 7,000 dead and wounded and dying men — 3,000 
of them clad in gray, 4,000 in the blue. 

Tactically, Perry ville was a Confederate victory; strategically, a defeat. 
The battle was won, the campaign was lost. On the succeeding morning, 
Buell's army, having been united by the arrival of Crittenden's corps, 
Bragg withdrew to Harrodsburg, massing his forces there and at Bryants- 
ville and offering but not urging battle. It was even then not too late to 
have struck the great blow for supremacy for which the laborious marches, 
the sleepless vigils and the faultless strategy of the preceding three months 
had been but the preparation and prelude. But less daring counsels pre- 
vailed. The great battle for which all America was listening with bated 
breath was never fought. Bragg retired in Tennessee and the campaign 
was at an end. 

Kentucky was once more in the iron grasp of the Union, and of all that 
gallant array which had vainly essayed her deliverance only the dead 
remained in her borders. The soldier, in the stern and brutal stress of 
war, must usually be buried where he falls. The soldiers who fell here 
were given at the time the rude and undistinguishing sepulture of the 
battlefield. Those who fell for the cause of the Union were, long since, 
under the impulse of a sentiment entirely noble and beautiful, tenderly 
removed and placed with solemn ceremonial in the cemeteries of the nation. 
The ashes of those who fell for the South are still here. They were men 
and youths from Tennessee, and mostly from Tennessee, from Georgia, 
from Alabama, from Mississippi and from the plains of far-off Texas. 
Their names will not all be known until the last great day. Strange to 
say, in this, the chief battle in Kentucky and for Kentucky, there were no 
organized Kentucky forces present on the side of the South. Morgan 
and his men were galloping in search of a mythical foe across the wooded 
pastures of Fayette and Woodford. Marshall, too, and his Kentuckians 
were miles away. It had been deemed impossible to spare Breckinridge 
and his immortal brigade, the "Orphans," from their line in Mississippi. 

The dead who rest here were, except in the generous brotherhcod of 
a great cause, aliens and strangers, but, as their mangled bodies have 



MICAH CHRI8MAN 8AUFLEY. 367 

mingled with and become a part of this clay, their memory also is now 
interwoven with the history of Kentucky, and their deeds now constitute 
no small part of her glory — her glory, not alone in the eyes of Kentucky 
Confederates and of those whose hearts and hopes were with us in that 
day, but in the eyes of the whole generous manhood and womanhood 
of the State. This beautiful shaft which we have here erected over name- 
less heroes is not the tribute of faction, or party, or class, but of the State. 
It is the general gift of a high-hearted people who love and honor greatness 
of soul for its own sake. The grizzled veterans of the winning cause will 
bend here the uncovered head with' a reverence as deep and as true and as 
gentle as that which bows the head and dims the eye of that other veteran 
whose cause was lost. The children of the one, no less than the children of 
the other, and their children's children, will see to it in the years that are to 
come that constancy so rare and deaths so glorious shall not be 
unremembered : 

"Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight, 
Nor Time's remorseless doom. 
Shall dim one ray of holy light 
Thai gilds this glorious tomb." 

It were idle now to speculate upon what might have been if certain 
things had happened or not happened in the great crises of the war; if 
Bragg's army had been massed here at Perryville; if Sidney Johnston 
had not fallen at the moment which placed Grant at his mercy; if Forrest's 
counsel had been followed at Chickamauga; if Stonewall Jackson had 
been spared at Chancellorsville ; if Longstreet had supported Pickett at 
Gettysburg. The result might have been reversed in either of these events 
and the South have taken her place among the nations. But the immutable 
fact remains that the Confederacy fell — ^fell gloriously, but never to rise 
again. Whether a different result might have been for greater good or 
greater ill, it is impossible to know and it is folly to guess. 

In a word, the war is long since over, its arbitrament accepted and 
all its passions hushed. We are once more in our father's house, 
not to serve but to rule with joint and equal sway. The past, with its 
somber but glorious memories, is irrevocably behind us. The future, with 
its new, world-wide, illimitable horizon, beckons us. Since it must be so, 
since we of the South must be a part of a single, indivisible nation, we 
purpose to play in that position no ignoble or unworthy part. 

In peace, there shall be no sluggards among the sons of the South; 
in war, there shall be no laggards, but in both war and peace their aim shall 
be, and there could be no higher aim, to emulate and exemplify the simple 
truth and loyalty, the knightly faith and valor of the unknown soldiers 
in gray who died and lie buried here. 



SWAGER SHERLEY. 

[STs-uger Sherley, Lawyer, Congressman, Louisville, Ky., was born in 
Louisville, Ky., November 28, 1871; graduated from the Louisville Male 
High School, B. A., 1889; University of Virginia, 1891; admitted to bar in 
September, 1891; Member of Congress from Fifth Kentucky District 1903-08.] 

THE SOUTH'S POLITICAL FUTURE. 

An extract from a speech delivered at the meeting of the Hamilton Club, 
Chicago, 111., on Saturday evening, April 8, 1905; the occasion being the 
annual celebration of Appomattox Day. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Hamilton Club: 

When I received the invitation of your club to be one of the chief 
speakers at this, your annual celebration of Appomattox day, and as such 
to represent the South, my first impulse was to decline the honor, for I 
remembered that some of the South's greatest men had preceded me, and 
that it was unfair to her and to you that I should attempt the impossible 
task of adding anything to their eulogies of the two great Americans who, 
on that eventful day, closed the great struggle of the North and the South, 

But the invitation was so pressing, the motive that prompted it so 
generous, that I felt constrained to accept, and comfort myself somewhat 
with the thought that, as a Southern man bom since the war, and there- 
fore in some sense representing the New South, I might present some 
views, not of the heroes of that day, but of the South of to-day, and might 
even attempt the dangerous role of prophecy and "span the future with 
the flimsy bridge of thought." 

It was suggested that this occasion had most fittingly been used by pre- 
vious speakers to give expression to that mutual good feeling of the two 
sections that has now so happily succeeded the period of bitterness that 
necessarily followed the Civil War. No pleasanter task could be assigned 
one,^and yet, it seems to me, none more unnecessary. It may be possible 
to find men in the South and men in the North who yet retain old 
bitternesses and animosities, but he who would succeed in such an unholy 
task must search with zeal, and his success will but illustrate the old 
saying that the exception proves the rule. This club, composed, as I am 
informed, of partisan Republicans, has, by the character of its celebration 
of this day, well shown to the country how all of us, while being partisan, 
can still always remain Americans. Being so convinced of this general 
attitude of all the country, I am to-night going to speak somewhat from 
the point of view of a partisan, but also I hope always and entirely as an 
American. I do this because, while I know that all feeling has passed 
away, I yet believe that there needs to come a more complete understanding 
cf the viewpoint of each section by the other, and that not by compliment, 
however gracious or pleasant, but by fair, open statement of such views, 
can such understanding be had. The result of the last election all too 
plainly showed that the South politically stood alone, and the alliterative 
phrase of the "Solid South" might now be fittingly added to and become 
the "solitary Solid South." Her political position is not new; it surprised 



8WAGER 8HERLE7. 869 

no one; but the fact that the influences that brought success to the Repub- 
lican cause did affect completely every other section served to most 
strikingly arrest the attention of the country and to cause men North and 
South to survey anew the causes, or, rather, cause of the South's position. 

That the race question keeps, and until in its political aspect it be solved 
must keep, the South alien in large measure to the national political life 
is apparent to all men. As to its solution, the South is of one opinion. 
That the North is solidly of a different opinion is, I believe, no longer true. 
Believing as I do that the concurrence in the South's position by the 
country at large is a matter only of time, I have determined to present 
to you what to us is an old picture ; show you if I can our point of view, 
and in particular impress upon you the very, very great harm that is 
being done not only the South, but the country at large, by the enforced 
abnegation on the South's part of any participation in national questions. 

In what I am going to say I have no desire to provoke controversy, 
and if, by chance, I should say aught that seems harsh, then I am sure 
your generosity will pardon the spoken words for the unspoken thought. 

Appomattox denied forever the right of secession and freed the slave, 
but Appomattox and its generation failed io settle the political and social 
relationship of the races. The fourteenth and fifteenth amendments and 
the civil rights act passed to enforce them were legislative attempts at 
solution, but they have failed so completely that I doubt if any considerable 
body of thoughtful men could be found who would, in the light of our 
present experience, advocate their adoption was the question to be faced 
anew. They were adopted in heat and passion and, so far as capable of 
enforcement, were enforced by sheer might, and they failed, as the South 
prophesied they must fail, because they were based on radically wrong 
principles. 

The attempt at enforcement created a condition that no fair-minded 
American can read of without a blush of shame. I have no desire, however, 
to speak of reconstruction. My State escaped its horrors and my own 
knowledge is hearsay. Other men have given to the world the facts, 
and over so fearful a picture of a great people's suffering might now well 
be drawn the veil of charity did not the lesson it teaches yet need to be 
learned. With a patience that spoke eloquently for the love of law, the 
Southern people bore their burden until it was apparent that Anglo- 
Saxon civilization was at stake. Then, by violent disregard of the law, 
they again secured control of their State governments. But to a people 
bred to the idea of orderly government, the situation was still intolerable. 
From violent disregard of the law came a disregard by artifice, and now 
from that has come a real relief under and by virtue of the law. In every 
Southern State where the negro population has been considerable, amend- 
m.ents to their Constitutions have been adopted limiting the franchise so 
as to eliminate the ignorant negro vote, and these amendments have stood 
the test of the courts. They do not violate the letter of the fifteenth 
amendment, though some there are who doubtless believe they do the 
original spirit of it. After forty years of struggle, they represent the final 
wisdom of the Southern people. For the first time in that period, the 
Southern man is in a position where he may independently exercise his 
right of suffrage. For the enfranchisement of the negro meant, in the 
true sense, a disenfranchisement of the white man. In the real Southern 
States this was strictly true; in States like my own it was, and, unfortu- 
nately, still is, practically true. 

23 



370 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

And now it is proposed by our politcal opponents that for this action 
the South's representation in Congress shall be reduced. Speaking for 
myself, as only I have the right to speak, though I believe it to be the 
judgment of the South, if this be the price we must pay for the elimination 
of the ignorant negro from politics, I am ready, anxious to pay it. While 
my State has absolutely no qualification save residence of the suffrage, 
has even a constitutional provision for the voting of illiterates, I have 
consistently and somewhat insistently urged an amendment that should 
limit the suffrage to the intelligent, educated voter, and I hope the day 
is not far distant when that will be done, even though by it her representa- 
tion in Congress is reduced. 

But, while I am willing for the South to pay this price, I do not believe 
it ought to have to pay. What is the reason given for demanding this pound 
of flesh ? First, the old answer' of Shylock — it is stipulated in the bond. 
Viewing it with exact legal accuracy, this is true. The penalty clause of 
the fourteenth amendment is not, in my judgment, repealed by the 
fifteenth, and I am inclined to believe that the construction by the supreme 
court of the words "denied and abridged" will be one that embraces the 
provisions of the Constitutions of the Southern States. But surely some- 
thing more than the mere letter of the law should be advanced for opening 
this Pandora's box. Well, we are told that it is unfair to the Northern 
States that a less number of voters should elect a Congressman from 
the South than the North, or that the vote in the Electoral College should 
be based on such inequality of voters. The argument seems weighty, 
but is only specious. Representation is not based now, and never has been, 
on voting strength, but always on population. There are inequalities now 
outside the Southern cases, if you consider the voter as the unit instead 
of the person. Colorado permits women to vote. Shall her representation 
be doubled over States of equal population, where men alone vote ? Voting 
of itself has no virtue ; it is simply a means to an end, and that end repre- 
sentation. The very persons who our critics are solicitous for would be 
punished by their remedy. Will the negro be better represented by half 
as many Southern Congressmen as by the present number? Only on 
the theory that such representatives are now hostile to the negro's real 
interest, a theory absolutely false in fact. Will the North gain anything 
but a temporary political advantage? Is it not a mistaken, un-American 
idea that the real interest of any section can be advanced at the expense 
of another section ? Is it right that we who have the burden of the negro 
shall have only the voice in national councils that we would be entitled 
to if we did not have such a burden? Shall the very hardship of our 
case be made the cause of a lessened voice in its solution ? But we are told 
that such restrictions on the suflfrage work a great wrong and injustice 
on the negro. I answer you, first, that no punishment by reduction of 
representation will ever cause the South to remove such restrictions on 
the suflfrage, and I deny that any injustice is done the negro by such laws. 
But, it is asked, can there be any liberty for the negro without the right 
of suflfrage being given him? I can best answer the question by quoting 
from a speech made before your club last year by a very great American, 
when he said, speaking of our foreign possessions: 

'There are two ideas that are always confused. There is civil liberty, 
which means the enjoyment of civil rights by the individual. A woman 
and child to-day enjoy in the United States as great civil rights as a man, 
but does the woman and child exercise any political control? Not the 



8WAGER 8HERLEY. 871 

slightest. Therefore it is entirely consistent that we should furnish to these 
people liberty as we are furnishing it, and still withhold something of 
political control until they can learn the self-restraint with which that 
political control can safely be exercised." 

Exception might be taken with some reason to that statement, as 
applied to the Philippines, on the ground that we were going into their 
country to establish our ideas, and that the guarantees of civil liberty 
contained in the Constitution do not apply to them, but for the case of 
the negro in the South the words fit absolutely. Every kind of civil liberty 
is guaranteed to the negro equally with the white man, and that guarantee 
is made effective not by State action only, but by the power of the national 
Government. No law can be passed that does not aifect the one race 
equally with the other. And to-day there is no denial of the civil rights 
of the negro. He enjoys liberty in the same full sense the white man 
does. But, over and above all else, there is no desire to deny him any 
liberty, but, on the contrary, there is the earnest desire of the Southern 
people to help the negro. We have taxed our resources to the utmost 
to educate him, giving his children practically equal facilities with our own, 
yet he furnishes but a very small percentage of the taxes. 

And this the South will continue to do, for, while the results of educa- 
tion of the negro have been anything but satisfactory, it is the one hope 
that the future holds. The South knows she can not degrade him without 
degrading herself; that only by lifting him to higher levels can she 
solve her problem. She knows that economically that labor is cheapest 
which is freest and most intelligent, and from sheer selfishness, if no higher 
motive, she would befriend him. But she knows also that the white race 
is superior, and will always remain so; that no hot-house process of 
legislation can advance civilization many centuries, and that no greater 
wrong can be done the negro than to teach him the doctrine of equality. 
His possession of the ballot has been the cause of nine-tenths of the friction 
between the races. Where he is in the majority, its exercise would mean 
ruin, as its exercise has ever brought it. Where not in the majority, its 
exercise is ever a menace, and he is but the football of politics, used by 
one party and abused by the other. Unfortunately, there are always 
unscrupulous white men willing to use the negro to give themselves power, 
and, as he always votes for one party, without regard to what it stands 
for, of necessity the self-respecting whites must vote against that party 
to prevent the reins of government passing into the control of the worst 
elements. 

I believe the time is coming when you will accept this point of view; 
that the strange theory that some of you hold that those men of your 
own blood and lineage, who have had most experience with the negro 
as he actually is, are least able to judge him truly, will pass away; but, 
whether it be true or not, this I do know, that the South is unalterably 
fixed in her own mind and, come what may, she will never again permit 
him to control her affairs, and while the slightest danger exists will she 
remain united in opposition. 

I say this in no boasting, intolerant spirit, but because it is a part of 
our very being and fiber. Remember, we are of your strain, and the 
English poet's words accurately describe us all : 

"Truly ye come of the blood, 

Slower to bless than to ban, 
Little given to lie down 
At the bidding of any man." 



372 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

The South deeply, reverently, desires now to help the negro, and if 
occasionally some Southerner says that which would seem to deny my 
statement, it is but the impulsive utterance of thoughtlessness or anger, 
rarely the sober judgment of the individual, and never the judgment of 
the community. But, gentlemen, the old generation of Southerners is 
passing away, they whose affection for the negro was strengthened by 
the old ties of close intimacy that slavery brought, ties that served to rob 
the institution of most of its evils. A younger set of men are taking their 
places, who have known the negro as a political thorn in their sides. The 
former unused white labor of the South is being rapidly taken advantage 
of. The poor whites of slavery days are educating their sons and sending 
them into the cities of the South. From having had a monopoly of the 
labor of the South, the negro is now meeting opposition, and that from 
a superior race. Immigration is turning Southward, and again the negro 
must face new industrial opponents. And the newcomer, whether from 
foreign shores or from the North, is always least tolerant of the negro. 
Let these men feel that they are being punished by reduction of repre- 
sentation for doing that which their own reason justifies, and is it not 
more than human to expect them to preserve as kind a feeling toward 
the negro as otherwise would exist ? 

These are but a few thoughts given you, with no idea that they touch 
the deep question created by two races increasing greatly in number, 
sharing with each other the same country, and yet totally different in 
thought and aspiration and power, but only with the hope of impressing 
upon you that, whatever the solution may be, if there be one, it is not 
along the lines of suffrage for the negro, and that agitation of the question 
of his political rights, or punishment for depriving him of them, only tends 
to make his lot harder, the South's burden greater, and postpones further 
her real participation in national affairs. 



ZACHARY F. SMITH. 

[Zachary F. Smith, Author and Publisher, was born in Henry County, 
Ky., January 7, 1827; President of Henry College, New Castle, Ky., 1803-66, 
Superintendent Public Instruction, State of Kentucky, for several years.] 

MOTHER OF HENRY CLAY. 
An address delivered before the Filson Club, Louisville, Ky., May, 1899. 

The woman who gave to our republic its greatest statesman and orator, 
perhaps, in all, the most gifted of his generation, can not but be a person 
of interest to every Kentuckian, and, indeed, to every American citizen of 
to-day and of future time. Whether the masterly genius that moulded 
political sentiment, led great parties and policies through victory and 
defeat and swayed the destinies of the nation for half a century was an 
ancestral heritage or the result of early parental training of mind and char- 
acter, or both, the subject is interesting. It is worthy of more conspicuous 
mention upon the pages of history as well as in the private realm of the 
literary circle. 

The solitary greatness of Washington and the ingenerate exclusiveness 
of the family from which he sprang have led to inquiry that has given 
us some insight into the life and character of the woman who gave to our 
country the greatest of great men. But who can speak familiarly to-day 
of the mothers of Thomas Jeflferson, of James Madison, or of others of 
the collegiate of statesmen who, under the inspiration of opportunity, pro- 
claimed the gospel of personal and civil liberty but a little over a century 
ago? These have made illustrious the history of America. The irreverent 
neglect which has permitted the names of so many worthy women to pass 
from public view may too long and too fatally consign to oblivion the 
noble matron, the mother of the immortal Clay. 

Virginia has been honorably mentioned as the ^'mother of States and 
the cradle of statesmen." Why not add — "and of immortal women"? 
In the year 1750, in the county of Hanover, in the grand old colony, was 
born Elizabeth Hudson, an event that, indirectly, was destined to play 
an important part in the history of the American people and of the nations 
cf the world outside. 

About the year 1700, John Hudson, a gentleman of English descent, 
settled in Hanover county, Virginia, and married Elizabeth Harris. There 
were bom to these eight sons. One son, George Hudson, who married 
Elizabeth Jennings and settled in the same county of Hanover, Virginia, 
being then under the colonial government of England. The last-named 
couple, George Hudson and Elizabeth Jennings, were the parents of 
Elizabeth Hudson and the maternal grandparents of Henry Clay, afterwards 
of Lexington, Ky., the orator and statesman. 

Traditions well agree in their descriptions of the person and character 
of Elizabeth Hudson Clay Watkins as she was remembered in daily life. 
Her dark hair and eyes, relieved by a light shading of complexion, with 
a flush of crimson on her cheeks, leaves the impression that she was not 



374 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

distinctively brunette or blonde, as a type of comely womanhood, but, 
perhaps, a blending of the two. She was possessed of strong Anglo-Saxon 
sense, with great determination of will, and was noted for the orderly 
industry and thrift with which she conducted her domestic affairs. 

The most vivid impressions made upon the mind of the writer of 
the noble matron were from the reminiscent talk of Mrs. Lucy Trabue. 
Mrs. Trabue was a fine type of the noble women of Kentucky of the early 
days of this century. 

In her traditional gossip, we had the first revelation of the inner life 
and history of the mother of Henry Clay, and to the notes taken down 
at the time and preserved is due the inspiration of desire and purpose to 
gather the materials for the biographies and family sketches of the worthy, 
but almost forgotten, Daughter of the Revolution who gave to us the 
immortal Clay. 

Mrs Trabue spoke in terms of admiration and almost enthusiasm of 
Elizabeth Clay. Her well-rounded and shapely form, indicating great 
energy and endurance, may have made the impression that she was below 
the medium in stature. The vigor of mind she displayed was no less 
manifest than that of body. She unconsciously asserted much of that im- 
periousness of v/ill which was a distinguishing trait of her illustrious son, 
and which made him a bom leader among men. She was engaging in 
manners, entertaining in conversation and a great favorite in social circles. 
Her individuality was striking and impressive. She was animated and 
genial in spirit and readily won the confidence and esteem of others. She 
spoke v/ith the authority of self-conscious right, yet always with disin- 
terested sympathy in all that concerned her friends. She was not only 
respected, but much reverenced by those who knew her intimately. In her 
home life she was hospitable and kind to all and sympathetic and responsive 
to every call of need among her neighbors. Though somewhat strict in 
her discipline with her children and servants, she was just and kind, and 
both paid to her the tribute of obedience with respectful devotion. 

The mother of Henry Clay was, undoubtedly, a woman gifted by 
Nature and of a marked individuality wrought out in the school of a 
many-sided life experience. She was possessed of traits of mind and a 
force of will and character which made her not only equal to every occa- 
sion, but in emergencies superior to environment. We reverently honor 
her memory as the mother of the great ; 'she was not less one of the 
heroic women of our country's destiny in the days of peril when our 
country needed heroines as well as heroes. 

Posterity should not do less than remember the deeds of such and make 
their names imperishable in our literature and upon the pages of history. 

We were able to find, a few years ago, only two living persons who 
had been upon familiar visiting terms with Mrs. Clay Watkins and knew 
her well in their youth. One was then nearing her eightieth and the other 
has passed his ninetieth birthday. Both soon after passed away and we 
know of no one left to give us other reminiscent traditions on the subject 
we treat as they knew her in person and life. The honored matron of 
whom we have written died in 1829, in the eightieth year of her age. Her 
remains were buried in the country graveyard in the vicinity of the home 
farm on which she resided at the time of her death and on the Moss place 
near Versailles, in Woodford county. 

In those early days, every neighborhood had a burial ground where 
those who died in the vicinity were usually interred. Here her mortal ashes 



ZACHARY F. SMITH. 375 

quietly and almost obscurely rested until the year 1851. It was the year 
preceding the death of the great Henry, her honore'd son. The burdens 
of age and of arduous labors in the service of his country lay heavily 
upon him. The feebler flow of the ebbing tide of life admonished him that 
the end was not far oflf. He had calmly made his peace with and com- 
mitted his soul to God. His thoughts went back as the thoughts of the 
aged do, to the memories of childhood and of youthful manhood, of which 
the image of his mother was a central vision. The lonely isolation of the 
country graveyard and the possibility that the tablet and epitaph and all 
vestiges of the inhumed might pass away and fade from record and from 
memory, came up before his mind. He tenderly cherished the love he 
bore his mother in her lifetime; that love was fresh in memory since 
her death. He determined to have her remains removed and deposited 
in his family lot in Lexington cemetery where, with other loved ones of 
his household, they might sleep side by side with his own. The venerable 
warder of this city of the dead, C. S. Bell, tells yet in graphic words how 
he received directions from Mr. Clay, nearly a half century ago, to remove 
and re-inter the remains of his mother in the spot where they yet rest — lot 
number thirty-seven, section one. It is located nearly due west of and about 
two hundred yards from the Clay monument. 

The monument ordered by Henry Clay for his mother's grave is of 
pure Italian marble. It stands nine feet in height from the ground, in 
somewhat massive yet symmetric proportions, and was artistically fashioned 
and erected by Pruden, of Lexington, in the year of re-interment I85l. 
Around it are grouped a number of the graves of the descendants of Henry 
and Lucretia Hart Clay, the stones and their epitaphs marking the spots 
of their sepulture. But the ashes of the Great Commoner do not repose 
at this family consecrated spot, as he anticipated. He belonged to the 
people in life, and the people claimed, in the name of the whole country, 
the privilege of paying such obsequies to his mortal remains as befitted 
the name of the Great Commoner, written as it is in imperishable lines 
in the memories and hearts of his countrymen. The dust of the immortal 
dead lies sacredly sealed in the sarcophagus which rests in the vault within 
the base of the towering Clay monument. 

We copy the inscriptive words as composed by her immortal son and 
carved in the marble which marks the place where rests the remains of the 
sainted and beloved mother: 

ELIZABETH WATKINS, 

FOBMEELY 

ELIZABETH CLAY; 
■ Born, 1750; 

Died, 1829. 

This monument, a tribute to her many domestic virtues, has been 
prompted by the filial affection and veneration of one of her grateful sons — 
H. Clay. 



WILLIAM WARWICK THUM. 

[William Warwick Thum was born in Louisville, Ky., February 23, 1855; 
educated in public and private schools of Louisville, and at the University of 
Virginia; Senior Member of the Law firm of Thum & Olark; has prac- 
ticed in chancery and at law, before all the courts and before juries, and 
has acted as a special judge; taken part in political canvasses and partici- 
pated in that free life of expression, interest and individual action, char- 
acteristic of the city and State of residence.] 

A LAWYER'S OPPORTUNITY. 

An after-dinner speech delivered at the banquet of the Louisville Bar 
Association at the Gait House, Louisville, Ky., February, 1905. 

It is an odd fashion this custom of after-dinner speaking, yet it is firmly 
fixed all over the world, particularly among English-speaking people. The 
reserved English need convivial dining to loosen their constraint, but this, 
once relaxed, there is then often much frank utterance. It may be that 
you will hear the exploitation of some new sport or game, or the grave 
discussion of the firing upon the fishing smacks by the Russian navy — the 
fad of the moment or the expressed governmental principle upon which 
will turn war or peace between powerful nations. It is at dinner that the 
Englishman expands, and Goldsmith advisedly expressed the national 
instinct in "She Stoops to Conquer" in making the awkward Diggory say 
that, "when he sees the eatables and drinkables come on, he grows as bold 
as a lion." 

"With this key Shakespeare unlocked his heart," says the later poet, 
referring to the sonnet. But he had another key. I think it was such a 
glass as this. The master of English prose, the shy Addison, over his dinner 
and wine in the comer of his favorite coflFee house, discoursed divinely. 
And, most notable fact, our chairman (E. J. McDermott), emerging from 
his modest shell, finds his eloquent, though diffident, tongue when the 
eatables and drinkables appear. This aid that food and drink give courage 
may explain the survival of speaking at dinners, otherwise it must have 
followed into obscurity the wager of battel and ordeal by fire and other 
similar institutions of the past. 

Brevity is one of its adornments. Once Mayor Charles D. Jacob 
was to bestow a wreath upon Mary Anderson and make an address of 
presentation. Her stepfather and manager. Dr. Hamilton Griffin, shortly 
before the speech began, told Mr. Jacob that in Milwaukee upon a like 
occasion the mayor had spoken for an hour to the agony of all. 

"Ah," said Mr. Jacob, "the warning is unnecessary. I shall not be over 
ten minutes." 

But here the limit is applied without any such delicate insinuation. 
One is simply told that he must define a lawyer's opportunities, in city. 
State and nation, in fifteen minutes, of which five have gone by. And 
that reminds me most irrelevantly of an early opportunity of our chairman 
when he was not so overrun with clients as now. I once sued a large 
German lady of the West End. Directed by the wonderful and infallible 
intuition of woman, she immediately employed our worthy chairman, the 
toastmaster. Shortly afterwards, I went to his office. As soon as I opened 
the door, I saw the large lady and her lawyer bathed in tears. She was 



WILLIAM WARWICK THUM. 877 

bathed in her tears and, from her great height, she poured tears down upon 
him. He called her name and would have introduced us, 1}ut I would not in- 
trude upon so sacred a scene. She had been served with a summons. The 
next time I served her with a notice, I looked in at our brother's office. 
There she was bedewing him with tears. It was not a case that involved feel- 
ing or character. It would not have occupied the criminal court a week with 
speeches that Erskine might have envied. It was a matter of arithmetic 
rather than of emotion. I had offered a just settlement that had been 
declined. I served more notices. You know that parties or lawyers must 
have notice of every step to be taken and I wished to avoid any technical 
errors, so I kept the sheriff's office busy. I was more hard-hearted then. 
My opponent began to wear a careworn look. He told me that the lady 
visited him often — always when a notice was served upon her — and wept 
whenever she came, and please not to serve her with any more notices. 
When she was served with her last notice, she came to see him as usual 
and, looking into his room, I saw her, this Teutonic Niobe, raining tears 
down upon her great-hearted but smaller counsel, while he — awash about 
the room— was explaining how it all happened. Then we settled and 
the room was mopped up. I may say that the lady got all she was 
entitled to and a little the rise, for she had rightly selected the most 
tenacious, pugnacious and sequacious member of the bar then as now. 

But it is not of such opportunities that I intended mainly to speak. That 
change, often silent, that is going on in our form of government is coming 
into evidence and marking progress now and again by such bills as the 
bill in Congress for regulation of railroads and railroad rates. Dealing 
with a subject that is akin to natural monopolies and relating to interstate 
commerce, it is within the traditions of both parties that it should be 
subject to governmental regulation and, while it is undeniably a step in the 
direction of centralization, its aim is nevertheless to "protect individual right. 
In the preparation and final passage, construction and application of such 
m.easures is opportunity for the exercise of the highest legal attainments 
and statesmanship. Also there is occasion to show that, however useful 
parties are in their place, there is a time for non-partisanship and patriotism. 
At the recent election for President, the Democratic party, headed by a 
man of high worth (Parker) and legal learning, as well as a student of 
public affairs, stood mainly for conservatism, reversal of existing tendencies 
— a check. But the country was not ready for such a check. The racial 
tendency, the spirit of the nation, particularly of the Democratic party, 
by its tradition and history, was for expansion. The country was highly 
prosperous. After all, it is a young nation, constantly reinforced by adven- 
turous spirits from other lands. It could not stand still. The time for 
a check had not come. In addition, the opposing candidate (Roosevelt), 
apparently or really represented the national ideals, was of undoubted 
personal gifts, proven and exercised in affairs. The result, doubtful to 
few, was soon plain to all. After it was known, it seemed axiomatic. The 
country, more than at any time within recent history, confided itself to 
the guidance of its president and follows still his guidance in public thought, 
even though the Senate has taken time or, now and then, halted. There 
may even be hope of a sensible reduction of tariffs so as to vastly increase 
our exchange and trade with all nations — a security for peace of equal, if 
not greater importance, than many armored ships. There is hope that 
the huge combinations of capital, which are no more preventable than the 
rising of the tides, may come under some regulation so that, if we can not 
take the trusts out of the world, we can measurably keep them from the 



878 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

evil. In short, though the millennium is not expected immediately, it is 
hoped that the outer entrenchments of privilege will be taken and that 
there will be accorded to the great mass of mankind, as a matter of dis- 
cretion and justice, that equal right and opportunity which, if not so 
accorded, will be acquired through violence. In the solution of all these 
great questions, it is to the lawyers the people must mainly look. 

At home, in Kentucky, a substantial material step has been taken in 
providing for a new capitol building. 

There is for solution a problem which has long been with us, but is 
now most pressing; that of order and the proper administration of justice 
in all parts of this State. In this question is room for the highest states- 
manship. It is not a question to be despaired of or treated by temporary 
expedients. There seems evidence of too deeply seated a trouble to be 
lightly passed over. Broad constructive measures, well thought out, thor- 
oughly considered and resolutely enforced, are needed. It is for all parties 
to support the administration to the good end of solving this problem 
^\'hich devolves upon it and upon the General Assembly. 

And this is true of many matters of general importance, such as good 
roads, education and legal reform, penal reform, taxation and others. It 
is no time for partisanship. We have suffered enough from that. And 
this brings me to the measure recommended by the Bar Association — ^an 
absolutely nonpartisan measure — an amendment to the election law by 
which the voters of each party can put one and the same man on all tickets 
if desired. It is a right which the people have and it should not be denied 
them. It is a right so desirable and necessary that its allowance rises above 
partisanship. It should be supported by all. The people have a right to 
have the best man elected. If he be the choice of all, then let us have 
the right to name him on all tickets, thus not jeopardizing his election and 
thus securing the best man. This measure is of far-reaching importance 
and will, undoubtedly, if passed, become more and more useful as time 
goes by. It is our opportunity to make its benefits known and secure its 
passage. 

Thus, each day and year, in good and evil report, the opportunity of 
the lawyer is the opportunity of the citizen and of the trained and equipped 
man. 

Fellow members of the bar, duty is your opportunity in city and county 
and State and in the republic. 

'impress upon yourselves the importance of your profession; consider 
that some of the greatest and most important interests of the world are 
committed to your care; that you are the protectors against the encroach- 
ments of power; that you are the preservers of freedom, the defenders 
of weakness, the unravelers of cunning, the investigators of artifice, the 
humblers of pride and the scourgers of oppression ; when you are silent, 
the sword leaps from its scabbard and nations are given up to the madness 
cf internal strife. In all the civil difficulties of life, men depend upon 
your exercised faculties and your spotless integrity, and they require of 
you an elevation above all that is mean and a spirit which will never 
yield when it ought not to yield: As long as your profession retains its 
character for learning, the rights of mankind will be well arranged; as 
long as it retains its character for virtuous boldness, those rights will be 
well defended ; as long as it preserves itself pure and incorruptible also on 
other occasions not connected with your profession, those talents will never 
be used to the public injury which were intended and nurtured for the 
public good." 



HENRY WATTERSON. 

[Henry Watterson was born in Washington, D. C, February 16, 1840, bis 
father at that time being a member of Congress from Tennessee; entered 
the profession of Journalism in Washington in 185S; edited the "Banner," 
Nashville, Tenn., in 1861; served in .the Confederate Army; after the war he 
went to Louisville, Ky., to reside, and in 1867 became editor of the "Journal;'' 
in 1868 he united with the "Courier/' and in connection with Walter N. 
Haldeman founded the "Courier-Journal," of which he has ever since been 
editor; he was a member of Congress in 1876-77.] 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

This lecture first delivered as an oration before the Lincoln Club of Chi- 
cago, February 12, 1895, and subsequently repeated on many platforms 
throughout the country. The text here given includes a passage added to 
the matter as originally spoken, relating to the Hampton Roads Conference. 
This presents Mr. Watterson's proof for the assertion as to what had actu- 
ally passed between President Lincoln and Hon. Alexander H. Stephens on 
that occasion, which has been questioned. 

The statesmen in knee breeches and powdered wigs who signed the 
Declaration of Independence and framed the Constitution; the soldiers in 
blue and buff, top boots and epaulets, who led the armies of the Revolution, 
were what we are wont to describe as gentlemen. They were English 
gentlemen. They were not all, nor even generally, scions of the British 
aristocracy, but they came, for the most part, of good Anglo-Saxon and 
Scotch-Irish stock. 

The shoe buckle and the ruffled shirt worked a spell peculiarly their 
own. They carried with them an air of polished authority. Hamilton, 
though of obscure birth and small stature, is represented by those who 
knew him to have been dignity and grace personified; and old Ben Franklin, 
even in woolen hose, and none too courtier like, was the delight of the 
great nobles and fine ladies, in whose company he made himself as much 
at home as though he had been bom a marquis. 

When we revert to that epoch, the beauty of the scene which history 
unfolds is marred by little that is uncouth, by nothing that is grotesque. 
The long procession passes, and we behold in each group, in every figure, 
something of heroic proportion. John Adams and John Hancock, Samuel 
Warren and Samuel Adams, the Livingstons in New York, the Carrolls in 
Maryland, the Masons, the Randolphs and Pendletons in Virginia, the Rut- 
ledges in South Carolina, what pride of caste, what elegance of manner, 
what dignity and dominancy of character! And the soldiers: Israel Putnam 
and Nathaniel Greene, Ethan Allen and John Stark, Mad Anthony Wayne 
and Light Horse Harry Lee, and Morgan and Marion and Sumter, gathered 
about the immortal Washington; Puritan and Cavalier mixed and blended 
as to be indistinguishable the one from the other — where shall we go to 
seek a more resplendent galaxy of field marshals? Surely not to Blenheim 
drinking beakers to Marlborough after the famous victory, nor yet to the 
silken marquet of the great Conde on the Rhine, bedizened with gold lace 
and radiant with the flower of nobility of France! Ah me! There were 
gentlemen in those days; and they made their influence felt upon life and 



880 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

thought long after the echoes of Bunker Hill and Yorktown had faded 
away ; long after the bell over Independence Hall had ceased to ring. 

The first half of the republic's first half century of existence, the public 
men of America, distinguished for many things, were chiefly and almost 
universally distinguished for repose of bearing and sobriety of behavior. 
It was not until the institution of African slavery had got into politics as 
a vital force that Congress became a bear-garden and that our law-makers, 
laying aside their manners with their small clothes, fell into loose-fitting 
habiliments of modem fashion and the slovenly jargon of partisan con- 
troversy. The gentlemen who signed the Declaration and framed the 
Constitution were succeeded by gentlemen — much like themselves — ^but 
these were succeeded by a race of party leaders much less decorous and 
much more self-confident; rugged, puissant; deeply moved in all that they 
said and did, and sometimes turbulent; so that, finally, when the volcano 
burst forth flames that reached the heavens, great human bowlders 
appeared amid the glare on every side; none of them much to speak of 
according to rules regnant at St. James and Versailles, but vigorous, able 
men, full of their mission and of themselves, and pulling for dear life in 
opposite directions. 

There were Seward and Sumner and Chase, Corwin and Ben Wade, 
Trumbell and Fessenden, Hale and Collamer and Grimes, and Wendell 
Phillips, and Horace Greeley, our latter-day Franklin. There were Toombs 
and Hammond, and Slidell and Wingfall, and the two little giants, Douglas 
and Stephens, and Yancey and Mason, and Jefferson Davis. With them 
soft words buttered no parsnips, and they cared little how many pitchers 
might be broken by rude ones. The issue between them did not require 
a diagram to explain it. It was so simple, a child might understand it. It 
read human slavery against human freedom, slave labor against free labor, 
and involved a conflict as inevitable as it was irrepressible. 

Long before the guns of Beauregard opened fire upn Fort Sumter, 
and, fulfiling the program of extremism, ^'blood was sprinkled in the faces 
of the people," the hustings in America had become a battle ground, and 
every rood of debatable territory a ring for controversial mills, always 
tumultuous and sometimes sanguinary. No sooner had the camp-fires 
of the Revolution — which warmed so many noble hearts and lighted so 
many patriotic lamps — no sooner had the camp-fires of the Revolution 
died out, than there began to bum, at first fitfully, then to blaze alarmingly 
in every direction, a succession of forest fires, baffling the energies and 
resources of the good and brave men who sought to put them out. Mr. 
Webster, at once a learned jurist and a prose poet, might thunder exposi- 
tions of the written law to quiet the fears of the slave-owner and to lull 
the waves of agitation. Mr. Clay, by his resistless eloquence and over- 
mastering personality, might compromise first one and then another of 
the irreconcilable conditions that threw themselves across the pathway 
of conservative statesmanship. To no purpose, except to delay the fatal 
hour. 

There were moving to the foreground moral forces which would down 
at no man's bidding. The still, small voice of emancipation, stifled for 
a moment by self-interest, playing upon the fears of the timid, recovered 
its breath and broke into a cry of abolition. The cry of abolition rose in 
volume to a roar. Slowly, step by step, the forces of freedom advanced 
to meet the forces of slavery. Gradually these mighty discordant elements 
approached the predestined line of battle; the gains for awhile seeming 



HENRY WATTERSON, 881 

to be in doubt, but in reality all on one side. There .was less and less 
of middle ground. The middlemen who ventured to get in the way were 
either struck down or absorbed by the one party or the other. The Senate 
had its Gettysburg, and many and many a Shiloh was fought on the floor 
of the House. Actual war raged in Kansas. The mysterious descent on 
Harper's Ferry, like a fire-bell in the night, might have warned all men 
of the coming conflagration; might have revealed to all men a prophecy 
in the lines that, quoted to described the scene, foretold the event — 

"The rock-ribbed ledges drip with a silent horror of blood, 
And Echo there, whatever is asked her, answers, 'Death.' -' 

Greek was meeting Greek at last, and the field of politics became almost 
as sulphurous and murky as an actual field of battle. 

Amid the noise and confusion, the clashing of intellects like sabers 
bright and the booming of the big oratorical guns of the North and the 
South, now definitely arrayed, there came one day into the Northern camp 
one of the oddest figures imaginable; the figure of a man who, in spite 
of appearance somewhat at outs with Hogarth's line of beauty, wore a 
serious aspect, if not an air of command and, pausing to utter a single 
sentence that might be heard by the din, passed on and, for a moment 
disappeared. The sentence was pregnant of meaning. The man bore a 
commission from God on high ! He said : ''A house divided against itself 
can not stand. 1 believe this Government can not endure permanently 
half free and half slave. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved ; I do 
not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided." 
He was Abraham Lincoln. 

How shall I describe him to you? Shall I speak of him as I first saw 
him immediately on his arrival in the national capital, the chosen President 
of the United States, his appearance quite as strange as the story of his 
life, which was then but half known and half told, or shall I use the words 
of another and a more graphic painter? 

In January, 1861, Colonel A. K. McClure, of Pennsylvania, journeyed 
to Springfield, 111., to meet and confer with the man he had done so much 
to elect, but whom he never had personally known. "I went direct from 
the depot to Lincoln's house," says Colonel McClure, "and rang the bell, 
which was answered by Lincoln himself opening the door. I doubt 
whether I wholly concealed my disappointment at meeting him. Tall, 
gaunt, ungainly, ill-clad, with homeliness of manner that was unique in 
itself, I confess that my heart sank within me as I remembered that this 
was the man chosen by a great nation to become its ruler in the gravest 
period of its history. I remember his dress as if it were yesterday — snuflf- 
colored and slouchy pantaloons; open black vest, held by a few brass 
buttons; straight or evening dress coat, with tightly-fitting sleeves to exag- 
gerate his long, bony arms, all supplemented by an awkwardness that was 
uncommon among men of intelligence. Such was the picture I met in the 
person of Abraham Lincoln. We sat down in his plainly furnished parlor, 
and were uninterrupted during the nearly four hours I remained with him, 
and, little by little, as his earnestness, sincerity and candor were developed 
in conversation, I forgot all the grotesque qualities which so confounded me 
when I first greeted him. Before half an hour had passed, I learned not 
only to respect, but, indeed, to reverence the man." 

A graphic portrait, truly, and not unlike. I recall him, two months 
later, a little less uncouth, a little better dressed, but in singularity much 



882 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

the same. All the world now takes an interest in every detail that con- 
cerned him or that reverts to the weird tragedy of his life and death. 

And who was this peculiar being, destined in his mother's arms — for 
cradle he had none^ — so profoundly to affect the future of humankind? 
He has told us himself, in words so simple and unaffected, so idiomatic 
and direct, that we can neither misread them nor improve upon them. 
Answering one who, in 1859, had asked for some biographic particulars, 
Abraham Lincoln wrote: 

"I was bom February 12th, 1809, in Hardin county, Kentucky. My 
parents were both bom in Virginia, of undistinguished families — second 
families, perhaps, I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, 
was of a family of the name of Hanks. ... My patemal grandfather, 
Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham county, Virginia, to Ken- 
tucky about 1781 or 1782, where, a year or two later, he was killed by 
the Indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open 
a farm in the forest. . . . 

"My father (Thomas Lincoln) at the death of his father was but six 
years of age. By the early death of his father, and the very narrow cir- 
cumstances of his mother, he was, even in childhood, a wandering, laboring 
boy and grew up literally without education. He never did more in the 
v/ay of writing than bunglingly write his own name. ... It was a 
wild region, with many bears and other animals still in the woods. 

.... "There were some schools, so-called, but no qualification 
was ever required of a teacher beyond 'readin' and cipherin' to the mle of 
three.' If a stranger supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn 
in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. ... Of course, 
when I came of age, I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, 
write and cipher to the mle of three. But that was all. . . . The 
little advance I now have upon this store of education I have picked up 
from time to time under the pressure of necessity. 

"I was raised to farm work . . . till I was twenty-two. At twenty- 
three I came to Illinois, Mason county. Then 1 got to New Salem . . . 
where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the 
Black Hawk war, and I was elected captain of a volunteer company, a 
success that gave me more pleasure than I have had since. I went the 
campaign, was elated, ran for the Legislature the same year (1832) and 
was beaten, the only time I have ever been beaten by the people. The 
next, and three successive biennial elections, I was elected to the Legislature. 
I was not a candidate afterward. During the le^slative period, I had 
studied law and removed to Springfield to practice it. In 1846, I was 
elected to the Lower House of Congress; was not a candidate for re-election. 
From 1849 to 1854, inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever 
before. Always a Whig in politics and generally on the Whig electoral 
tickets, making active canvasses. I was losing interest in politics when the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. 

"If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be 
said that I am in height six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, 
on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with 
coarse black hair and gray eyes. No other marks or brands recollected." 

There is the whole story, told by himself, and brought down to the 
point where he became a figure of national importance. 

His political philosophy was expounded in four elaborate speeches; 
one delivered at Peoria, 111., October 16, 1854; one at Springfield, 111., 



HENRY WATTER80N, 883 

June 16, 1858; one at Columbus, O., September 16, 1859, and one 
February 27, i860, at Cooper Institute, in the city of New York. Of 
course, Mr. Lincoln made many speeches and very good speeches. But 
these four, progressive in character, contain the sum total of his creed, 
touching the organic character of the Government and at the same time 
his personal and party view of contemporary aflfairs. They show him to 
have been an old-line Whig of the school of Henry Clay, with strong 
emancipation leanings; a thorough anti-slavery man, but never an extremist 
or an abolitionist. To the last he hewed to the line thus laid down. 

It is needful to a complete understanding of Mr. Lincoln's relation 
to the time and to his place in the political history of the country that 
the student peruse closely the four speeches to which I have called atten- 
tion; they underlie all that passed in the famous debate with Douglas; all 
that their author said and did after he succeeded to the presidency. They 
stand to-day as masterpieces of popular oratory. But for our present 
purpose the debate with Douglas will suffice — ^the most extraordinary 
intellectual spectacle the annals of our party warfare afford. Lincoln en- 
tered the canvass unknown outside the State of Illinois. He closed it 
renowned from one end of the land to the other. 

Judge Douglas was himself unsurpassed as a stump speaker and ready 
debater. But in that campaign, from first to last. Judge Douglas was at 
a serious disadvantage. His bark rode upon the ebbing tide; Lincoln's 
bark rode upon a flowing tide. African slavery was the issue now; and 
the whole trend of modern thought was set against slavery. The Demo- 
crats seemed hopelessly divided. The "Little Giant" had to face a trian- 
gular opposition embracing the Republicans, the administration, or 
Buchanan Democrats, and a little remnant of the old Whigs, who fancied 
that their party was still alive and thought to hold some kind of balance 
of power. Judge Douglas called the combination the "allied army," and 
declared that he would deal with it "just as the Russians dealt with the 
allies at Sebastopol — ^that is, the Russians did not stop to inquire, when 
they fired a broadside, whether it hit an Englishman, a Frenchman, or a 
Turk." It was something more than a witticism when Mr. Lincoln rejoined : 
"In that case, I beg he will indulge us while we suggest to him that those 
allies took Sebastopol." 

He followed this center shot with volley after volley of exposition 
so clear, of reasoning so close, of illustration so pointed, and, at times, 
of humor so incisive, that, though he lost his election — ^though the allies 
did not then take Sebastopol — ^his defeat counted for more than Douglas' 
victory, for it made him the logical and successful candidate for the 
President of the United States two years later. 

As the debate advanced, these cheery tones deepened into harsher 
notes; crimination and recrimination followed; the two gladiators were 
strung to their utmost tension. They became dreadfully in earnest. Per- 
sonal collision was narrowly avoided. I have recently gone over the entire 
debate, and with feeling I can only describe as most contemplative and 
most melancholy. 

In that great debate it was Titan against Titan; and, perusing it after 
the lapse of forty years, the philosophic and impartial critic will conclude 
which got the better of it, Lincoln or Douglas, much according to his 
sympathy with the one or the other. Douglas, as I have said, had the 
disadvantage of riding an ebb-tide. But Lincoln encountered a disadvantage 
in riding a flood-tide, which was flowing too fast for a man so conservative 



•84 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

and so honest as he was. Thus there was not a little equivocation on 
both sides foreign to the nature of the two. Both wanted to be frank. 
Both thought they were being frank. But each was a little afraid of his 
own logic; each was afraid of his own following; and hence there was 
considerable hair-splitting involving accusations that did not accuse and 
denials that did not deny. They were politicians, these two, as well as 
statesmen; they were politicians, and what they did not know about polit- 
ical campaigning was hardly worth knowing. Reverently, I take off my 
hat to both of them; I turn down the page, I close the book and lay it 
on the shelf, with the inward ejaculation: "There were giants in those 
days." 

I am not undertaking to deliver an oral biography of Abraham Lincoln, 
and shall pass over the events which quickly led up to his nomination and 
election to the presidency in i860. 

I met the newly-elected President the afternoon of the day in the 
early morning of which he had arrived in Washington. It was Saturday, 
I think. He came to the Capitol under Mr. Seward's escort and, among 
the rest, I was presented to him. His appearance did not impress me as 
fantastically as it had impressed Colonel McClure. T was more familiar 
with the Western type than Colonel McClure, and while Mr. Lincoln was 
certainly not an Adonis, even after prairie ideals, there was about him a 
dignity that commanded respect. 

1 met him again the forenoon of March 4th in his apartment at the 
Wfllard Hotel as he was preparing to start to his inauguration, and was 
touched by his unaffected kindness; for I came with a matter requiring his 
immediate attention. He was entirely self-possessed; no trace of nervous- 
ness, and very obliging. I accompanied the cortege that passed from the 
Senate chamber to the vast portico of the Capitol and, as Mr. Lincoln re- 
moved his hat to face the vast multitude in front and below, I extended my 
hand to receive it, but Judge Douglas, just beside me, reached over my 
outstretched arm and took the hat, holding it throughout the delivery of 
the inaugural address. I stood near enough to the speaker's elbow not to 
obstruct any gestures he might make, though he made few; and then it was 
that I began to comprehend something of the power of the man. 

He delivered his inaugural address as if he had been delivering inaugural 
addresses all his life. Firm, resonant, earnest, it announced the coming 
of a man; of a leader of men; and in its ringing tones and elevated style, 
the gentlemen he had invited to become members of his political family — 
each of whom thought himself a bigger man than his master — might have 
heard the voice and seen the hand of a man born to command. Whether 
they did or not, they very soon ascertained the fact. From the hour 
Abraham Lincoln crossed the threshold of the White House to the hour he 
went thence to death, there was not a moment when he did not dominate 
the political and military situation and all his official subordinates. 

Mr. Seward was the first to fall a victim to his own temerity. One 
of the most extraordinary incidents that ever passed between a chief and 
his lieutenant came about within thirty days after the incoming of the new 
administration. On April 1st, Mr. Seward submitted to Mr. Lincoln a 
memorandum, entitled "Some Thoughts for the President's Consideration." 
He began this by saying: "We are at the end of a month's administration, 
and yet without a policy, either foreign or domestic." There follows a 
series of suggestions hardly less remarkable for their character than for 
their emanation. They make quite a baker's dozen, for the most part 



HENRY WATTER80N, 886 

flimsy and irrelevant; but two of them are so conspicuous for a lack of 
sagacity and comprehension that I shall quote them^as a sample of the 
whole : 

"We must change the question before the public," says Mr. Seward, 
''from one upon slavery, or about slavery, to one upon union or disunion" 
— as if it had not been changed already — and "I would demand explanations 
from Spain and France, energetically, at once . . . and if satisfactory 
explanations are not received from Spain and France, I would convene 
Congress and declare war against them. ... I would seek explana- 
tions from Great Britain and Russia, and send agents into Canada, Mexico 
and Central America to arouse a vigorous spirit against European inter- 
vention." 

Think of it ! At the moment this advice was seriously given the head 
of the State by the head of the Cabinet — supposed to be the most accom- 
plished statesman and astute diplomatist of his time — a Southern Confed- 
eracy had been actually established, and Europe was only too eager for 
some pretext to put in its oar, effectually, finally, to compass the dissolu- 
tion of the Union and the defeat of the Republican experiment in America. 
The Government of the United States had to make a grimace at France 
and Spain; to bat its eye at England and Russia, to raise up a quadruple 
alliance monarchy against democracy, bringing down upon itself the navies 
of the world and double assuring, double confirming, the Government of 
Jefferson Davis. 

In concluding these astounding counsels, Mr. Steward says: "Either 
the President must do it himself and be all the while active in it, or devolve 
it on some other member of his Cabinet. Once adopted, all debates on 
it must end and all agree and abide. It is not in my essential province; 
but I neither seek to evade nor assume responsibility." 

Before hearing Mr. Lincoln's answer to all this, consider what it really 
implied. If Mr. Seward had simply said: "Mr. Lincoln, you are a failure 
as President, but turn over the direction of affairs exclusively to me, and 
all shall be well and all be forgiven," he could not have spoken more 
explicitly and hardly more offensively. 

Now let us see how a great man carries himself at a critical moment 
under extreme provocation. Here is the answer Mr. Lincoln sent Mr. 
Seward that very night : 

Executive Mansion, April 1, 1861. 
"Hon. W. H. Seward: 

"My Dear Sir: Since parting with you I have been considering your 
paper dated this day and entitled, 'Some thoughts for the President's con- 
sideration.' The first proposition in it is, 'We are at the end of a month's 
administration and yet without a policy, either domestic or foreign.' 

"At the beginning of that month, in the inaugural I said: 'The power 
confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and 
places belonging to the Government, and to collect the duties and imports.* 
This had your distinct approval at the time; and taken in connection with 
the order I immediately gave General Scott, directing him to employ every 
means in his power to strengthen and hold the forts, comprises the exact 
domestic policy you urge, with the single exception that it does not propose 
to abandon Fort Sumter. ***** Tho news received yesterday in 
regard to Santo Domingo certainly brings a new item within the range of 
our foreign policy, but up to that time we have been preparing circulars and 
instructions to ministers and the like, all in perfect harmony, without even 
a suggestion that we had no foreign policy. 

"Upon your closing proposition — that 'Whatever policy we adopt, there 
must be energetic prosecution of it. 

24 



386 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

" 'For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and direct 
it incessantly. 

" 'Either the President must do it himself and be all the while active in 
it, or devolve it upon some member of his Cabinet. 

" 'Once adopted, debates must end, and all agree and abide.' I remark 
that if this be done, I must do it. When a general line of policy u adopted, 
I apprehend there is no danger of its being changed without good reason, 
or continuing to be a subject of unnecessary debate; still, upon points arising 
in its progress. I wish and suppose I am entitled to have the advice of all 
the Cabinet. Your obedient servant, 

"A. LINCOLN." 

I agree with Lincoln's biographers that in this letter not a hint or 
allusion was omitted that was necessary, and not a hint or allusion is con- 
tained that could be dispensed with. It was conclusive. It ended the 
argument. Mr. Seward dropped into his place. Mr. Lincoln never referred 
to it. From that time forward the understanding was perfect. So much 
so that when, May 21st following, Mr. Seward submitted to the President 
the draft of a letter of instruction to Charles Francis Adams, then Minister 
to England, Mr. Lincoln did not hesitate to change much of its character 
and purpose by his alteration of the text. This original copy of this 
despatch, in Mr. Seward's handwriting, with Mr. Lincoln's interlineations, 
is still to be seen on file in the Department of State. It is safe to say 
that, if that letter had gone as Mr. Seward wrote it, a war with England 
would have been, if not inevitable, yet very likely. Mr. Lincoln's additions, 
hardly less than his suppressions, present a curious contrast between the 
seer in affairs and the scholar in affairs. Even in the substitution of one 
word for another, Mr. Lincoln shows a grasp both upon the situation and 
the language which seems to be wholly wanting in Mr. Seward, with his 
experience and learning. It is said that, pondering over this document, 
weighing in his mind its meaning and import, his head bowed and pencil 
in hind, Mr. Lincoln was overheard murmuring to himself: "One war at 
a time — one war at a time." 

While I am on this matter of who was really President while Abraham 
Lincoln occupied the office, I may as well settle it. We all remember how, 
in setting up for a bigger man than his chief, Mr. Chase fared no better 
than Mr. Seward. But it is sometimes claimed that Mr. Stanton was more 
successful in this line. Many stories are told of how Stanton lorded it over 
Lincoln. On a certain occasion, it is related, that the President was in- 
formed by an irate friend that the Secretary of War had not only refused 
to execute an order of his, but had called him a fool in the bargain. ''Did 
Stanton say I was a fool?" said Lincoln. "Yes," replied the friend, "he 
said you were a blank, blank fool!" Lincoln looked first good-humoredly 
at his friend and then furtively out of the window in the direction of the 
War Department, and carelessly observed: "Well, if Stanton says that 
I am a blank fool, it must be so, for Stanton is nearly always right and 
generally means what he says. I think I shall just have to step over and 
see Stanton." 

On another occasion, Mr. Lincoln is quoted as saying: "I have very 
little influence with this administration, but I hope to have more with the 
next." 

Complacent humor such as this simply denotes assured position. It is 
merely the graciousness of power. But there happens to be on record a 
story of a different kind. This is related by General James B. Fry, 
Provost Marshal General of the Army, on duty in the War Department. 



HENRY WATTERSON. 887 

As General Fry tells it, Mr. Stanton seems to have the right of it. 
The President had given an order which the Secretary of War had refused 
to issue. The President thereupon came into the War Department and 
this is what happened. In answer to Mr. Lincoln's inquiry as to the cause 
of trouble, Mr. Stanton went over the record and the grounds for his 
action, and concluded with: "Now, Mr. President, these are the facts, 
and you must see that your order can not be executed." Lincoln sat upon 
the sofa, with his legs crossed, and did not say a word until the Secretary's 
last remark. Then he said in a somewhat positive tone: "Mr. Secretary, 
I reckon you'll have to execute the order." Stanton replied with asperity: 
''Mr. President, I can not do it. " The order is an improper one and I can 
not execute it.' 

Lincoln fixed his eye on Stanton, and in a firm voice, and with an 
accent that clearly showed his determination, he said: ^'Mr. Secretary, 
it will have to be done." 

"Stanton then realized" — I am still quoting General Fry — "that he was 
overmatched. He had made a square issue with the President and had 
been defeated, notwithstanding the fact that he was in the right. Upon an 
intimation from him, I withdrew and did not witness his surrender. A few 
mjnutes after I reached my office, I received instructions from the Secretary 
to carry out the President's order." ^ 

Once General Halleck got on a high horse and demanded that, if 
Mr. Lincoln approved some ill-natured remarks alleged to have been made 
of certain military men about Washington, by Montgomery Blair, the 
Postmaster-General, he should dismiss the officers from the service, but, if 
he did not approve, he should dismiss the Postmaster-General from the 
Cabinet. Mr. Lincoln's reply is very characteristic. He declined to do 
either of the things demanded. He said : 

"Whether the remarks were made, I do not know, nor do I suppose 
such knowledge necessary to a correct response. If they were made, 
I do not approve them; and yet, under the circumstances, I would not 
dismiss a member of the Cabinet therefor. I do not consider what may be 
hastily said in a moment of vexation . . . sufficient ground for so 
grave a step. Besides this, truth is generally the best vindication against 
slander. I propose continuing to be myself the judge as to when a member 
of the Cabinet shall be dismissed." 

Next day, however, he issued a warning to the members of his political 
family which, in the form of a memorandum, he read to them. There 
is nothing equivocal about this. In language and in tone, it is the utterance 
of a master. I will read it to you, as it is very brief and to the purpose. 
The President said : 

"I must myself be the judge how long to retain and when to remove 
any of you from his position. It would greatly pain me to discover any 
of you endeavoring to procure another's removal, or in any way to preju- 
dice him before the public. Such endeavor would be a wrong to me, and, 
much worse, a wrong to the country. My wish is that on this subject no 
remark be made, nor any question be asked by any of you, here or else- 
where, now or hereafter." 

Always courteous, always tolerant, always making allowance, yet 
always explicit, his was the master-spirit, his the guiding hand ; committing 
to each of the members of his Cabinet the details of the work of his own 
department; caring nothing for petty sovereignty, but reserving to himself 
all that related to great policies, the starting of moral forces and the 
moving of organized ideas. 



388 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

I want to say just here a few words about Mr. Lincoln's relation to the 
South and the people of the South. 

He was himself a Southern man. He and all his tribe were Southerners. 
Although he left Kentucky when but a child, he was an old child; he 
never was very young; and he grew to manhood in a Kentucky colony; for 
v/hat was Illinois in those days but a Kentucky colony, grown since some- 
what out of proportion? He was in no sense what we in the South used 
to call "a poor white." " Awkward, perhaps; ungainly, perhaps, but 
aspiring; the spirit of a hero beneath that rugged exterior; the soul of a 
prose-poet behind those heavy brows; the courage of a lion back of those 
patient, kindly aspects; and, before he was of legal age, a leader of men. 
His first love was Rutledge; his wife was a Todd. 

Let the romancist tell the story of his romance. I dare not. No sadder 
idyl can be found in all the short and simple annals of the poor. 

But the South does not know, except as a kind of hearsay, that he was 
a friend; the sole friend who had the power and the will to save it from 
itself. He was the one man in public life who could have come to the 
head of affairs in 1861, bringing with him none of the embittered resent- 
ments growing out of the anti-slavery battle. The direst blow that could 
have been laid upon the prostrate South was delivered by the assassin's 
bullet that struck him down. 

Throughout the contention that preceded the war, amid the passions 
that attended the war itself, not one bitter, proscriptive word escaped the 
lips of Abraham Lincoln, while there was hardly a day that he was not 
projecting his great personality between some Southern man or woman 
and danger. 

Under date of February 2, 1848, from the hall of the House of Repre- 
sentatives at Washington, while he was serving as a member of Congress, 
he wrote this short note to his law partner at Springfield : 

''Dear William : I take up my pen to tell you that Mr. Stephens, of 
Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive man, with a voice like 
Logan's" (that was Stephen T., not John A.), "has just concluded the 
very best speech of an hour's length I ever heard. My old, withered, dry 
eves" (he was then not quite thirty-seven years of age) "are full of tears 
yet." 

From that time forward, he never ceased to love Stephens, of Georgia. 

After the famous Hampton Roads conference, when the Confederate 
commissioners, Stephens, Campbell and Hunter, had traversed the field 
of official routine with Mr. Lincoln, the President, and Mr. Seward, the 
Secretary of State, Lincoln, the friend, still the old Whig colleague, though 
one was now President of the United States and the other Vice-President 
of the Southern Confederacy, took the ''slim, pale-faced, consumptive 
m.an" aside and, pointing to a sheet of paper he held in his hand, said: 
''Stephens, let me write 'Union' at the top of that page, and you may 
write below it whatever else you please." 

In the preceding conversation, Mr. Lincoln had intimated that payment 
for slaves was not outside a possible agreement for reunion and peace. He 
based that statement upon a plan he already had in hand, to appropriate 
four hundred millions of dollars to this purpose. 

There are those who have put themselves to the pains of challenging 
this statement of mine. It admits of no possible equivocation. Mr. Lincoln 
carried with him to Fortress Monroe two documents that still stand in his 
own handwriting; one of them a joint resolution to be passed by the two 



HENRY WATTERSON. 389 

Houses of Congress appropriating the four hundred millions, the other a 
proclamation to be issued by himself, as President, when the joint resolution 
had been passed. These formed no part of the discussion at Hampton 
Roads, because Mr. Stephens told Mr. Lincoln they were limited to treating 
upon the basis of the recognition of the Confederacy, and to all intents 
and purposes the conference died before it was actually bom. But Mr. 
Lincoln was so filled with the idea that the next day, when he had returned 
to Washington, he submitted the two documents to the members of his 
Cabinet. Excepting Mr. Seward, they were all against him. He said: 
"Why, gentlemen, how long is the war going to last? It is not going to 
end this side of a hundred days, is it .? It is costing us four millions a day. 
There are the four hundred millions, not counting the loss of life and 
property in the meantime. But you are all against me, and I will not 
press the matter upon you." I have not cited this fact of history to attack, 
err even criticise, the policy of the Confederate Government, but simply 
to illustrate the wise magnanimity and justice of the character of Abraham 
Lincoln. For my part, I rejoice that the war did not end at Fortress 
Monroe, or any other conference, but that it was fought out to its bitter 
and logical conclusion at Appomattox. 

It was the will of God that there should be, as God's own prophet 
had promised, "a new birth of freedom," and this could only be reached 
by the obliteration of the very idea of slavery. God struck Lincoln down 
in the moment of his triumph to attain it ; He blighted the South to attain 
it. But He did attain it. And here we are this night to attest it. God's 
will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. But let no Southern man 
point finger at me because I canonize Abraham Lincoln, for he was the 
one friend we had at court when friends were most in need; he was the 
one man in power who wanted to preserve us intact, to save us from 
the wolves of passion and plunder that stood at our door; and as that God, 
of whom it has been said that "whom He loveth He chasteneth," meant 
that the South should be chastened, Lincoln was put out of the way by 
the bullet of an assassin, having neither lot nor parcel, North or South, 
but a winged emissary of Fate, flown from the shadows of a mystic world, 
which Eschylus and Shakespeare created and consecrated to tragedy ! 

One thinks now that the world in which Abraham Lincoln lived might 
have dealt more gently by such a man. He was himself so gentle, so 
upright in nature and so broad of mind, so sunny and so tolerant in temper, 
so simple and so unaffected in bearing — a rude exterior covering an un- 
daunted spirit, proving by his every act and word that — 

"The bravest are the tenderest, 
The loving are the daring." 

Though he was a party leader, he was a typical and patriotic American, 
in whom even his enemies might have found something to respect and 
admire. But it could not be so. He committed one grievous offense ; he 
dared to think and he was not afraid to speak ; he was far in advance of his 
party and his time; and men are slow to forgive what they do not readily 
understand. 

He would smooth over a rough place in his official intercourse with 
a funny story fitting the case in point, and they called him a trifler. He 
would round off a logical argument with a familiar example, hitting the 
nail squarely on the head and driving it home, and they called him a 
buffoon. Big Whigs and little Whigs were agreed that he lowered the 



390 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

dignity of debate, as if debates were intended to mystify and not clarify 
truth. Yet he went on and on, and never backward, until his time was 
come, when his genius, fully ripened, rose to emergencies. Where did he 
get his style? Ask Shakespeare and Burns where they go their style. 
Where did he get his grasp upon affairs and his knowledge of men ? Ask 
the Lord God who created miracles in Luther and Bonaparte ! 

When General Grant asked him whether he should make an eflfort 
to capture Jefferson Davis, "I told Grant," said Lincoln, relating the 
incident, "the story of an Irishman who had taken Father Matthew's 
pledge. Soon thereafter, becoming very thirsty, he slipped into a saloon 
and asked for a lemonade and, while it was being mixed, he leaned over 
and whispered to the bartender: 'Av ye could drap a bit o' brandy in it, 
all unbeknown to myself, I'd make no fuss about it.' My notion was that 
if Grant could let Jeff Davis escape all unbeknown to himself, he was 
to let him go. I didn't want him." 

I gather that he was not a civil service reformer of the school of 
Grover Cleveland, because I find among his papers a short, peremptory 
note to Stanton, in which he says: "I personally wish Jacob Freese, of 
New Jersey, appointed colonel of a colored regiment, and this regardless 
of whether he can tell the exact color of Julius Caesar's hair." 

His conventionalism was equaled only by his humanity. No cus- 
todian of absolute power ever exercised it so benignly. His interposition 
in behalf of men sentenced to death by court-martial became so demoraliz- 
ing that his generals in the field united in a round-robin protest. Both 
Grant and Sherman cut the wires between army headquarters and the 
White House to escape his interference with an iron rule of military 
discipline. 

A characteristic story is told by John B. Ally, of Boston, who, going 
to the White House three days in succession, found each day in one of the 
outer halls a gray-haired old man, silently weeping. The third day, touched 
by this not uncommon spectacle, he went up to the old man and ascer- 
tained that he had a son under sentence of death and was trying to reach 
the President. 

"Come along," said Ally, ^'I'll take you to the President." 

Mr. Lincoln listened to the old man's pitiful story and then sadly replied 
that he had just received a telegram from the general commanding, implor- 
ing him not to interfere. The old man cast one heart-broken look at the. 
President and started shuffling toward the door. Before he reached it, Mr. 
Lincoln called him back. "Come back, old man," he said. "The generals 
may telegraph and telegraph, but I am going to pardon that young man." 

Thereupon he sent a despatch, directing sentence to be suspended until 
execution should be ordered by himself. Then the old man burst out crying 
again. "Mr. President," said he, "that is not a pardon; you only hold up 
the sentence of my boy until you can order him to be shot !" 

Lincoln turned quickly and, half smiles, half tears, replied : "Go along, 
old man, go along in peace ; if your son lives until I order him to be shot, 
he'll grow to be as old as Methuselah !" 

I could keep you here all night relating such incidents. They were 
common occurrences at the White House. There was not a day of 
Lincoln's life that he was not doing some act of charity, not like a 
sentimentalist, overcome by cheap emotion, but like a brave, sensible man, 
who knew where to draw the line and who made few, if any, mistakes. 

His was the genius of common sense; of common sense in action; of 
common sense in thought; of common sense enriched by experience and 



HENRY WATTER80N. 391 

unhindered by fear. "He was a common man," says his friend, Joshua 
Speed, "expanded into giant proportions; well acquainted with the people, 
he placed his hand on the beating pulse of the nation, judged of its disease, 
and was ready with a remedy." Inspired he was truly, as Shakespeare 
was inspired; as Mozart was inspired; as Bums was inspired; each, like 
him, sprung directly from the people. 

Born as lowly as the Son of God, in a hovel; reared in penury, squalor, 
with no gleam of light or fair surroundings; without graces, actual or 
acquired; without name or fame or official training, it was reserved for 
this strange being, late in life, to be snatched from obscurity, raised to 
supreme command at a supreme moment, and intrusted with the destiny 
of a nation. 

The great leaders of his party, the most experienced and accomplished 
men of the day, were made to stand aside; were sent to the rear, while 
this fantastic figure was led by unseen hands to the front and given the 
reins of power. It is immaterial whether we were for him or against him, 
wholly immaterial. That, during four years, carrying with them such a 
weight of responsibility as the world never witnessed before, he filled the 
space allotted him in the eyes and actions of mankind is to say that he 
was inspired of God, for nowhere else could he have acquired the wisdom 
and the virtue. 

Where did Shakespeare get his genius? Where did Mozart get his 
music? Whose hand smote the lyre of the Scottish ploughman and stayed 
the life of the German priest? God, God, and God alone; and surely as 
these were raised up by God, inspired by God, was Abraham Lincoln; 
and a thousand years hence, no drama, no tragedy, no epic poem will 
be filled with greater wonder, or be followed by mankind with deeper 
feeling, than that which tells the story of his life and death. 



ONCE A KENTUCKIAN, ALWAYS A KENTUCKIAN. 

A speech delivered at the welcome ceremonies to home-comers to Ken- 
tucky at th« Armory, at Louisville, Ky., Wednesday, June 13, 1906. 

Once a Kentuckian, always a Kentuckian. From the cradle to the 
grave, the arms of the mother-land, stretched forth in mother-love — the 
bosom of the mother-land, immortal as the ages, yet mortal in maternal 
affection, warmed by the rich, red blood of Virginia — ^the voice of the 
mother-land, reaching the farthest comers of the earth in tones of heavenly 
music, summon the errant to the roof -tree's shade and bid the wanderer 
home. What wanderer yet was ever loth to come? Whether upon the 
heights of fortune and fame, or down amid the shadows of the valley of 
death and despair, the true Kentuckian, seeing the shining eyes and hearing 
the mother call, sends back the answering refrain : 

"Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see, 
My heart, untraveled, fondly turns to thee." 



392 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

Behold, in this great, exultant multitude, the proof ! 

Kentucky! Old Kentucky! The very name has had a charm, has 
wrought a spell, has made a melody all its own; has woven on its sylvan 
loom a glory quite apart from the glory of Virginia, Kentucky's mother, 
and the glory of Tennessee, Kentucky's sister. It has bloomed in all 
hearts where manhood and womanhood hold the right of way. The 
drama of the ages, told in pulse-beats, finds here an interlude which fiction 
vainly emulates and history may not overleap. Not as the Greek, seeking 
Promethean fire and oracles of Delphos, nor as the Roman filled with 
the joy of living and the lust of conquest; not as the Viking, springing 
10 the call of wind and wave, nor as the Latin, dazzled by the glitter of 
gold, mad with the thirst for glory; neither as the Briton and the Teuton, 
eager for mastership on land and sea, the Kentuckian, whom we, in filial 
homage, salute progenitor. He was as none of these. Big in bone and strong 
cf voice — ^the full-grown man prefigured by the psalmist — never the ocean 
mirrored his fancies, nor snow-clad peaks that reach the skies inspired; 
but the mystery of strange lands, the savagery of Nature and the song of 
the greenwood tree. 

The star that shone above him and led him on was love of liberty, the 
beacon of his dreams, the light of the fireside. He cut a clearing in the 
wild wood and called it home. He read not romance, he made it; nor 
poetry, he lived it, his the forest epic, the Iliad of the canebrake, the 
Odyssey of the frontier, the unconscious prose-poem of the rifle and the 
camp, the blockhouse and the plow, the Holy Bible and the old field school ! 

Happy the man who has sat in childhood upon a well-loved grandsire's 
knee, awed by the telling of the wondrous tale, how even as the Dar- 
danae followed Eneas, the Virginians followed Boone; the route from 
Troy to Tiber not wearier, nor flanked by greater hazard than that betwixt 
the shores of the Chesapeake and the falls of the Ohio; the mountain 
standing, Gorgon-like, across the pathless way, as if, defending each defile, 
to hold inviolate some dread, forbidden secret; the weird wastes of wilder- 
ness beyond; the fordless stream; the yawning chasm; the gleam of the 
tomahawk and the hiss of the serpent; yet ever onward, spite of the 
haunting voice of the elements, stripped for the death-struggle with man, 
spite of the silence and the solitude of reluctant Nature, like some fawn- 
eyed maiden, resisting his rude intrusion; ever onward; before him the 
promised land of the hunter's vision; in his soul the grace of God, the 
fear of hell and the love of Virginia ! 

God bless Virginia! Heaven smile upon her as she prepares to 
celebrate with fitting rite three centuries of majestic achievement, the star- 
crown upon her brow, the distaflf in her hand, nor spot, nor blur to dim 
the radiance of her shield ! 

They came, the Virginians, in their homespun in quest of homes; their 
warrant their rifles; their payment the blood of heroes; nor yet forgetting 
a proverb the Chinese have that "it needs a hundred men to make a 
fortress, but only a woman can make a home" — for they were quick to go 
back for their women; their wives and their sweethearts; our grand- 
mothers, who stood by their side beautiful and dauntless, to load their 
fowling-pieces, to dress their wounds, to cheer them on to battle, singing 
their simple requiem over the dead at Boonesboro, and bringing water from 
the spring at Bryant's Station, heart-broken only when the news came back 
from the river Raisin. 

I am here to welcome you in the name of all the people of this lovely 



HENRY WATT ER80N, 393 

city, in the name of all the people of this renowned Commonwealth, to 
welcome you as kith and kin; but you will not expect me, I am sure, 
to add thereto more than the merest outline of the history of Kentucky 
as it is known to each and every one of you, from the time when the path- 
finders, under the lead of Harrod and Henderson, of Boone and Kenton, 
blazed their way through the forest, and the heroes led by Logan and Shelby, 
by Scott and Clark, rescued the land from the savage, to the hour which 
smiles upon us here to-day ; a history resplendent with illustrious names and 
deeds; separating itself into three great epochs and many episodes and ad- 
ventures in woodcraft and warcraft and statecraft; the period of the Clays, 
the Breckinridges and the Crittendens, with its sublime struggle to pre- 
serve the Union of the States as it had come down to them from the 
Revolution, with always the Marshalls and the Wickliffes, the Boyles and 
the Rowans, the Johnsons and the Browns, the Adairs, the Deshas and the 
McDowells, somewhere at the fore — "Old Ben Hardin" having a niche all 
to himself — none of them greater than he; the period of the war of 
sections, when even the Clays, the Crittendens and the Breckinridges were 
divided, when, for a season, the skies were hung in sable and all was 
dark as night, the very sacrifices that had gone before seeming to have 
been made in vain, the "dark and bloody ground" of barbaric fancy, come 
into actual being through the passions and mistakes of Christian men ; and, 
finally, the period after the war of sections, when the precept, "Once a 
Kentuckian, always a Kentuckian," was met by the answering voice, "Blood 
is thicker than water," and the Goodloes, the Ballards and the Speeds, the 
Harlans, the Frys and the Murrays clasped their hands across the breach 
and made short shrift of the work of reconstruction with the Buckners, 
the Prestons and the Dukes. Thus it is that here at least the perplexed 
grandchild can not distinguish between the grizzled grandfather who wore 
the blue and the grizzled grandfather who wore the gray. 

Kentucky, which gave Abraham Lincoln to the North and Jeflferson 
Davis to the South, contributing a very nearly equal quota of soldiers to 
each of the contending armies of that great conflict — in point of fact, as 
many fighting men as had ever voted in any election — a larger per centum 
of the population than has ever been furnished in time of war by any 
modern State' — Kentucky, thus rent by ^y\\ feud, was first to know the 
battle was ended and to draw together in re-united brotherhood. Kentucky 
struck the earliest blow for freedom, furnished the first martyrs to liberty, 
in Cuba. It was a Crittenden, smiling before a file of Spanish musketry, 
refusing to be blindfolded or to bend the knee, for the fatal volley, who 
uttered the key-note of his race, "A Kentuckian always faces his enemy 
and kneels only to his God." It was another Kentuckian, the gallant 
Holman, who, undaunted by the dread decimation, the cruel death-by-lot, 
having drawn a white bean for himself, brushed his friend aside and drew 
another in his stead. Ah, yes ; we have our humors along with our heroics, 
and laugh anon at ourselves, and our mishaps and our jokes; but we are 
nowise a bloody-minded people ; the rather a sentimental, hospitable, kindly 
people, caring perhaps too much for the picturesque and too little for 
consequences. Though our jests be sometimes rough, they are robust and 
clean. We are a provincial people and we rejoice in our provincialism. 
We have always piqued ourselves upon doing our love-making and our 
law-making, as we do our plowing, in a straight furrow; and yet it is true 
that Kentucky never encountered darker days than came upon us when 
the worst that can befall a Commonwealth seemed passed and gone. The 



394 KET^TUCKT ELOQUENCE. 

stubborn war between the old court party and the new court party was 
bitter enough; but it was not so implacable as the strife which strangely 
began with the discussion of an honest difference of opinion touching a 
purely economic question, of national, not State, policy. Can there be one 
living Kentuckian who does not look back with horror and amazement 
upon the passions and incidents of those evil days? 

General Grant once said to me: "You Kentuckians are a clannish 
set. Whilst 1 was in the White House, if a Kentuckian happened to get 
in harm's way, or wanted an office, the Kentucky contingent began to pour 
in; in case he was a Republican, the Democrats said he was a perfect 
gentlemen; in case a Democrat, the Republicans said the same thing. Can 
it be that you are all perfect gentlemen?" With unblushing candor, I 
told him that we were; that we fought our battles, as we washed our 
linen, at home, but that outside, when trouble came, it was Kentucky 
against the universe. Mr. Tilden said of a lad in the Bluegrass country, 
who had fallen from a second-story window upon a stone paving without 
a hurt and had run away to his play, fhat it furnished conclusive proof 
that ''he was destined for a great career in Kentucky politics." Let me 
frankly confess that, peacemaker though I am, and at once the most 
amiable and placable of men, there have been times when I, even I, half- 
wanted to go down to the cross-roads "and swear at the court." That 
was when things did not swing to suit me. That was when the majority 
appeared to think they knew more than I did. We grow so used to bless- 
ings that we heed them not and look beyond. Yet, when trouble, or danger 
assails us, or humiliation, or sorrow, or when leagues, oceans, continents 
lie between ourselves and the vanished land from whose sacred lintels 
ambition has lured us, or duty torn, and the familiar scenes rise up before 
us, how small these frictions seem, how small they are, and how they perish 
from us! 

I have stood upon the margin of a distant sea and watched the ships 
go by, envious that their prows were westward bent. I have marked the 
glad waves dancing to the setting sun, heartsick with thoughts of home. 
And thus wistful, yearning, ready to take my dearest enemy by the hand 
and forgive him, yea, to sop gravy with him out of the selfsame dish, 
those words of the vagabond poet, whose sins the recording angel long 
ago blotted out of his book, have come to me and sung to me and cheered 
me even as .a mother's lullaby: 

"In all my wanderings round this world of care, 
In all my griefs — and God has given my share — 
I still had hopes my latest hours to crown. 
Among the swains to show my book-learned skill. 
Amid these rural scenes to lay me down, 
To husband out life's taper at the close. 
And keep the flame from wasting by repose, 
I still had hopes — for pride attends us still — 
Among the swains to show my book-learned skill. 
Around my fire an evening group to draw. 
And tell of all I felt and all I saw. 
And as a hare whom hounds and horns pursue, 
Pants to the place from whence at first he flew, 
I still had hopes my long vexations past, 
Here to return and die at home at last." 

Home! There may be words as sweet, words as tender, words more 
resonant and high, but, within our language round, is there one word so 
all-embracing as that simple word Home ? Home, "be it never so humble, 



HENRY WATTERSON. 895 

there's no place like home" — ^the Old Kentucky Home; the home of your 
fathers, and of mine; of innocent childhood, of happy -boyhood, of budding 
manhood; when all the world seemed bright and fair, and hearts were 
full and strong; when life was a fairy-tale, and the wind, as it breathed 
upon the honeysuckle about the door, whispered naught but of love and 
fame; and glory strode the sunbeams; and there was no such music as the 
low of cattle, the whir of the spinning-wheel, the call of the dinner-horn 
and the creaking of the barnyard gate. Home — 

"Take tJie bright shell 

From its home on the lea, 
And wherever it goes 

It will sing of the sea. 
So take the fond heart 

Prom its home by the hearth, 
'Twill sing of the loved ones 

To the ends of the earth." 

For it's "Home, Home, Home," sighs the exile on the beach and it's 
"Home, Home, Home," cries the hunter from the hills and the hero from 
the wars — 

"Hame to my ain count ree," 

always Home, whether it be tears or trophies we bring; whether we come 
with laurels crowned, or bent with anguish and sorrow and failure, having 
none other shelter in the wide, wide world beside, the prodigal along with 
the victor — often in his dreams, yet always in his hope^ — ^turns him Home ! 
You, too, friends and brothers — Kentuckians each and every one — ^you, 
too. Home again ; this your castle, Kentucky's flag, not wholly hid beneath 
the folds of the nation's, above it; this your cottage, Kentucky-like, the 
latch-string upon the outer side; but, whether castle or cottage, an altar 
and a shrine for faithful hearts and hallowed memories. Be sure from 
yonder skies they look down upon us this day; the immortal ones who 
built this Commonwealth, and left it consecrate, a rich inheritance and high 
responsibility to you and me; who, like the father of Daniel Webster, 
shrank from no danger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve their country and raise 
their children to a condition better than their own. In God's name, and 
in Kentucky's name, I bid you something more than welcome: I bid you 
know and feel, and carry yourselves, as if you knew and felt that you 
are no longer dreaming, that this is actually God's country, your native 
soil, that, standing knee-deep in bluegrass, you stand full-length in all our 
homes and all our hearts! 



HARRY WEISSINGER. 

[Harry Weissinger was born in Louisville, Ky., November 25, 1843; 
Farmer, Vice-President Columbia Finance and Trust Co.; former President 
Louisville Board of Trade; and former President Board of Aldermen, Louis- 
ville, Ky.] 

YOUR DEAD ARE OURS, AND OUR DEAD ARE YOURS. 

An address delivered at the Memorial services of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, at Belfast, Maine, on Decoration Day, May 30, 1900. 

Measured by miles, the distance I have traveled to be with you to-day 
is great, but when 1 considered the occasion of my presence among you 
(an old Confederate soldier invited to speak over the graves of your brave 
dead) and as 1 thought of the honor thus conferred and the sentiment 
that goes with it, I confess that 1 was lifted above myself, and the trip 
was not only short, but one of exultation and pride. As I journeyed from 
my Kentucky home, from great city to great city, passing State lines with- 
out knowing it, seeing the general characteristics of the people all alike, 
I could but marvel at the greatness of our country. No wonder the people, 
with a spontaneity which could only be bom of love and gratitude, seek 
to do honor to the graves of the preservers of the Union. 

You may bank up your flowers as high as these hills and build monu- 
ments to the clouds, and then you have made but a slight manifestation 
of the gratitude to the soldiers of the Union that should pervade the hearts 
of posterity. They fought better than they knew, for they not only pre- 
served the geographical integrity of the nation, but they revivified and 
indelibly stamped on the conscience of all civilization the great truth, first 
heard in 76, that "all men are bom free and equal," but which failed to 
electrify the world at the time, because it was ignored in the Constitution 
of the nation which had proclaimed it in its Declaration of Independence, 
and it was contrary to the practice of most of the States of the Union. 

Political independence was the one great aim of the Revolution, and 
this contention overshadowed the inestimable blessing of universal indi- 
vidual liberty. African slavery seemed to the patriots of 76 not incon- 
sistent with liberty. Patrick Henry, in the very hearing of slaves, delivered 
that soul-stirring speech, "Give me liberty or give me death," and which 
v.'as echoed back from every hilltop and valley of the thirteen States. The 
grotesque absurdity of slave-owners signing a Declaration of Independence 
which asserted the inalienable right of all men to liberty and equality passed 
unnoticed at the time. Liberty and slavery — proclaiming the one and 
practicing the other. This antithesis of theory and fact, if viewed alone 
from the high moral standpoint of the dawning of the twentieth century, 
can not be understood and will do our forefathers and the people of the 
State down to '65 great injustice. 

In order to properly understand the action of a people at any particular 
period of time, it is necessary to know their environments and be acquainted 
with the spirit of the age. This knowledge can be obtained only by going 
backward and looking forward, and not by going forward and looking 



HARRY WEI88INGER. 397 

backward. If, from the high standpoint of 1900, we take the retrospective 
view, we look, as it were, through magnifying glasses; success becomes 
exalted and mistakes a crime. In the light of to-day, no man can see the 
patriotic spirit which animated the Southern army in the defense of seces- 
sion and slavery; hence, I repeat that, in order to be just, we must go 
back and look forward. In the early settlements of the country, two 
opposing germs were planted: Liberty and Slavery. In time, the mother 
country discouraged the one and encouraged the other. The government 
of England fostered and protected the slave trade with the colonies, and 
it was defended by many of her. most distinguished divines. Lecky, the 
greatest living English historian, tells us that, up to the nineteenth century, 
but few voices were raised against it. Chatham, England's greatest min- 
ister and endeared to Americans because of his manly fight against "taxation 
without representation," boasted that his conquests in Africa had placed 
almost the whole slave trade in England's hands, and the generation that 
applauded his conquests considered the extension of the slave trade 
a capital feature of England's commercial policy. In 1776, David Hartley, 
for the first time, brought the question before Parliament by moving 
the resolution that the slave trade was contrary to the laws of God and 
man ; but it was easily defeated and attracted no attention in or out of Par- 
liament. George Whitefield, England's grandest pulpit orator, who lifted 
the religious sentiments of two continents to a higher plane than had ever 
been reached before, a fervent lover of America and an advocate of her 
independence, was a defender of slavery and was largely responsible for 
its introduction into Georgia. The bones of this great man, unless they 
have been eaten up by the rust of time, lie buried in New England. An 
orphan asylum established by him in Georgia owned seventy-five slaves. 
Thus it will be seen that slavery and religion marched hand in hand. Had 
I the time, I could make many citations from English history conclusively 
showing that slavery in the colonies was promoted by the State and 
defended by many ministers of religion. But this is not necessary, for the 
truth is too well known. 

Before the Revolution, slavery existed in all the States, except, perhaps, 
Massachusetts. But, after our independence was established, it speedily 
gravitated to the South, where the climate and the soil made it profitable, 
and where it remained recognized by the Constitution of the United States 
and the laws of every Southern State until 1861. Under these conditions, 
it was not strange that the people of the South regarded the right of 
property in slaves as sacred, nor was it strange that, when they conceived 
this property in danger, they should have united in defense of it. Proof 
of the sincerity of their purpose is to be found in the long and heroic 
defense made against overwhelming numbers, backed by a courage and 
patriotism equal to their own. It was not the first time in the history of 
man when the good and the brave defended wrong, but it was the first 
time in the history of the worid where, before the wounds of battle are 
yet healed, the vanquished rejoice with the victors over their own defeat, 
and where the victorious have accorded to the defeated the highest patriotic 
motives in fighting for a bad cause, and the greatest admiration for the 
valor shown on the field of battle. 

The one time brave soldier of the Union army, now the President of 
the United States, has said, in substance, that the time is now ripe when 
the graves of the Southern soldiers should be cared for by the Govern- 
ment. Take it all in all, I regard this as the bravest and most patriotic 



898 KENTUOKT ELOQUENCE, 

sentiment that ever fell from the lips of man and, as a Confederate soldier, 
I am glad to have the opportunity to proclaim it before a Northern audience, 
composed largely of the Grand Army of the Republic and their descendants. 
My comrades, my countrymen, my friends! From the bottom of my heart, 
I declare to you, and I feel I voice the unanimous sentiment of the South, 
that your dead are ours, and our dead are yours, and to this sentiment I 
know you in your hearts have said, "Amen" before it came from my lips. 

The great apostle of liberty and freedom, Abraham Lincoln, with a 
prophetic vision, had declared that the union of States could not be main- 
tained half free and half slave; in this he was wiser than the framers of 
the Constitution. He recognized that liberty and slavery were not co- 
ordinate factors of freedom and could not exist at the same time as part 
of the body politic any more than two things can occupy the same space 
at the same time. 

You read history in vain if you do not conclude with me that slavery 
was the one artificial barrier to the perfect union of the States. The war 
was the logical result of the condition that obtained. The abolition of 
slavery was the resultant consequent of the war, and then for the first 
time since the Declaration of Independence the way was open for a perfect 
union of the States. Since the adoption of the Constitution up to '61, 
there had been a gradual parting of the ways between the North and South, 
until it culminated in secession. Since the restoration of peace and the 
purging of the Constitution, the two sections have come together closer 
and closer, until now the people are in perfect touch and the union of 
hearts is stronger than the paper compact. No difference in the fundamental 
principle of government existing, the same definition of freedom recog- 
nized everywhere, the same aspirations and aims animating the people of 
each State, education free to all who will take, and the union of the States 
must endure as long as the words freedom and liberty have any meaning 
and man's reason is not dethroned. 

All this the soldiers of the Union have brought about, and all over 
the country a grateful people on this day place flowers on the graves of 
the dead to keep green the memory of the heroic deeds of the defenders 
of the flag. Would to God that the fragrance of these sweet flowers 
might descend into the graves they cover, thence ascend, wafted by affec- 
tion to the realms of the blest and, mingling with the zephyrs of heaven, 
perfume the souls of the brave. It is to be hoped that this beautiful custom 
will never wane; it should be fostered North and South, because the senti- 
ment which leads a people is the highest evidence of a pure patriotism, 
much more exalted than the building of shafts to conspicuous leaders. 
The privates in the ranks on either side, who obeyed orders unmoved by 
personal ambition and without prospect of fame and marched straight to 
death were the heroes of the strife. 

Before the war, because of the difference in our institutions, the two 
sections had become so estranged that the one deprecated the other. The 
war made the people of the North and the South acquainted with the 
valor and worth of one another, and this acquaintance soon ripened into 
respect. I remember very well, when I was a boy, it was a very common 
saying that ''one Southerner could whip two Yankees," and I religiously 
believed it. In my ignorance of the character of my own countrymen, I had 
no doubt that, so soon as "we 'uns" charged, "you 'uns" would run ll^e 
turkeys. But, oh my! What a surprise there was when "you 'uns" and 
"we 'uns" came together. Then it was I learned that in a fight one 



ADDENDA. 

TO BE READ after the first paragraph on page 398. 

The mind dwelling on the waste, the destruction of homes, the loss of 
e, and all the horrors attendant upon the war, greatly deplores our civil strife, 
ut considering the results, and the great benefits achieved thereby, we now 
ory in what was then our deep sorrow, and sanctify every drop of blood shed, 
no civilized country can there now be found an intelligent man who defends 
ivery; it is everywhere now regarded as a crime. But every informed man 
lows it was not an individual or Southern crime, but national, and it took the 
ood of the nation to atone for it. 

B£ READ after the word people in the ninth line of the fourth paragraph on page 398. 

care for the graves of the men who risked their lives in defense of the princi- 
5S and property of the people. 

TO BE READ before the last paragraph on page 398. 
Let us by these exercises raise a monument in the hearts of the people, 
iqueathed by one generation to another, to those brave soldiers whose patriotic 
arts kept the ranks unbroken, and met death, a monument to the faithful who 
;re not famous, but who were precious as the continuity of the sunbeams is 
jcious, though some of them fall unseen and on barrenness. 



HARRY WEI8SINGER, 399 

American was as good as another, if not a little better, and, long before 
the war was over, I knew that it took three Southerners to whip two 
Yankees, and three Yankees to whip two Southerners. You remember 
that, on your side, you at first called out seventy-five thousand men to 
serve three months. It was believed that the rebellion would be sup- 
pressed in that time; in fact, no less a man than Secretary of State, William 
H. Seward, gave it as his opinion that the war would not last sixty days. 
But, when the clash came, my God! what an awakening; it was Greek 
meet Greek; a fight to the death, and neither side longer doubted the 
courage, earnestness and endurance of the other. Thus a mutual respect 
was born which grew as the contest waged fierce, until it finally culminated 
in the knightly act of your gallant General Chamberlain, whose privilege 
it was to receive the surrender of Lee's army. When the ragged, half- 
starved Confederate troops were drawn up in line, preparatory to laying 
down their arms. General Chamberlain drew his men up in line opposite 
and ordered them to present arms, and thus showed respect and paid honor 
to his defeated but heroic countrymen. 

The Confederates then dispersed and returned to their impoverished 
homes to begin life anew, but they carried with them a lasting feeling of 
respect for the magnanimity of the victorious. 

You may travel from the Penobscot to the Rio Grande, mingling as 
you go with the people in all walks of life, and you will find no evidence 
of the civil strife which desolated the land only thirty-five years ago. No 
living evidence, I mean; nothing in the conduct of the people and the 
intercourse of States to remotely suggest the late sectional hostilities. Mon- 
uments erected to the memory of the dead soldiers you will find in every 
State, South as well as North. Built not in triumph, but from the highest 
motives of affection and patriotism; once honoring the dead and exalting 
the living. 

You will involuntarily lift your hat in reverence at the tomb of Lee 
and Jackson, just as we would at the tomb of Grant and Sherman. In 
Chickamauga National Cemetery, on the battlefield where brave Ken- 
tuckians contended on either side, the great State of Kentucky has reared 
a magnificent shaft in honor of her soldiers who fell fighting for the right 
as either saw it. Chiseled in the stone are these words : 

"As we are united in life, and they are united in death, let one monu- 
ment perpetuate their deeds, and one people forgetful of all asperities, for- 
ever hold in grateful remembrance all the glories of that terrible conflict, 
which made all men free and retained every star on the Nation's flag." 

This recalls the striking example in this regard set by Maine nearly 
one hundred years ago. In 1814, the American brig Enterprise in Portland 
harbor, after a bloody engagement, captured the British ship Boxer and 
brought her to Portland. In the fight the captain and half the crew of 
the Boxer were killed. The American captain, Burrows, of the Enterprise, 
also lost his life. The remains of both officers, opposed in mortal combat 
while living, were buried side by side with military honors and a monument 
raised to their memory. In all my reading, I do not remember to have 
seen a historical incident more touching than this. It was characteristic of 
Maine then and now. 

Beginning with the Revolution, Maine has always rendered her full 
share of help to her country and has been quick to respond to every call. 
In the War of 1812, she is said to have enlisted more troops for the war 



400 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

in proportion to her population than any other State. In the Civil War, 
her soldiers distinguished themselves in every battle in which they toob 
part. So many of her sons took high rank in the army that I have not 
the time to name them all. Maine is great in peace as she was mighty 
in war. Her statesmen have taken the highest rank and her people, as 
Macaulay says of the Scotch, ''have gone to the top in every occupation" 
wherever they have emigrated. They, above all people with whom I have 
any acquaintance, have illustrated in their own person the axiom that a 
man's home is not where he was bora, but where he takes root and thrives. 

In conclusion, I desire again to refer to my presence here on this occa- 
sion. Your invitation to me, an ex-Confederate soldier, to participate with 
you in the ceremonies of this day, set aside by the grateful people as sacred 
to the memory of her dead soldiery, is a grateful reminder that all bitter- 
ness growing out of sectional war has been obliterated, and that we are 
indeed one people. When the President called for volunteers to fight in 
the Spanish-American War, you remember that the response came as 
quick and as hearty from the South as it did from the North, and we 
behold the sons of the Union and Confederate soldiers, marching side 
by side under the star-spangled banner, led by General Lawton and old 
Joe Wheeler, charging the heights of Santiago, inspired by the alternate 
strains of "Yankee Doodle" and "Dixie." 

My comrades, you and I are growing old; soon we shall pass beyond 
the Great River and pitch our tents for all time on the eternal camping 
ground of Grant and Lee, of Jackson and McPherson. Let us remember 
that the most precious legacy we can bequeath to our descendants is good 
will and love of the Union, to the end that the splendid civilization of the 
United States may have a reflex influence over the whole world. 



THOMAS WALSH. 

[Thomas Walsh, Lawyer, Louisville, Ky., was born in Connersville, Incl., 
December 14, 18G5; educated at St. Mary's College, Marion County, Ky.] 

THE MUSIC OF POETRY. 

It is seldom, indeed, that a toast suggests music, but on the present 
occasion the toast to which I am called upon to respond suggests a world 
of music. It suggests the music of the spheres, and, likewise, the music 
of the morning stars singing together as the resplendent gateways of the 
east open for dawn to enter in. It suggests the everlasting music of 
torrents pouring their flashing waters from cliflf and precipice to yawning 
chasm and abyss below. It suggests the soothing songs and dreamy melodies 
of twilight, when the dark is in the trees, as the moon ascends the skies 
and fills their depths with various forms of bewitching beauty. 

The music of poetry can be heard about us everywhere and all the 
time. It can be heard in the thunder of the skies as they marshal their 
forces for the onset of the tempest, and it can be heard in the eternal 
clash and dash of contending billows of the seas as they continue to break 
forever upon the shore of every continent and clime. It can be heard in 
the innocent prattle of children, romping in childish play in happy homes, 
and it can be heard in the silver peal and chime of Sabbath bells calling 
the faithful to the temples of the Most High to thank Him for blessings 
of the past and to supplicate Him for the blessings of the future. 

In fact, the music of poetry is the music of the world. It is the music 
of loom and spindle, weaving fabrics for every human being of every land 
and sun. It is the music of flaming forge and sounding anvil keeping time 
to the measured strokes struck upon them by sledge and hammer through 
the power of brawn and muscle. It is the music of the countless wheels 
of commerce that revolve night and day in all the busy hives of human 
industry. It is the music of the song of joy and the dirge of lamentation. 
It is the music of the Te Deum at the shrine of love and of the requiem 
at the grave. 

When our emotions are awakened by weal or woe, when our hearts are 
moved to action by great feeling, and when our souls respond to splendid 
sentiment and thought, then they naturally break forth in the language 
of poetry, and the language of poetry is the language of measured words 
marching in stately verse and stanza to soundless music. So noble, so 
pure, so exalted does the language of poetry become when giving expression 
to beauty, sublimity and truth, that it seems to be the language of the 
angels of the skies and of fair spirits that minister by canticle and psalm 
to the harmonies of heaven. Such is the music of poetry. 



26 



CHARLES A. WICKLIFFE. 

[Charles A. Wickliffe, Governor, Postmaster-General, was born in Bards- 
town, Ky., June 8, 1788; died in Howard County, Md., October 31, 1869; he 
was educated at the Bardstown grammar school; studied law, and was ad- 
mitted to the oar in 1809, and began practice in Bardstown; Aide to General 
Samuel Caldwell at the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813; Member of the 
Legislature 1814-23; Member of Congress from Kentucky 1823-33; Member 
of the Kentucky Legislature and its Speaker in 1834; Lieutenant-Governor of 
Kentucky in 1836; acting Governor in 1839; Postmaster-General under Pres- 
ident Tyler from 1841 till 1845; Member of Kentucky Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1849; Member of Peace Conference in 1861; Member of Congress 
1861-63; Delegate to the Chicago National Democratic Convention in 18G4.] 

MY POLITICAL INCONSISTENCY. 

A speech delivered in the Kentucky Constitutional Convention November 
15, 1849, in reply to charges of political inconsistency made against him by 
a delegate from Wayne County. 

Mr. President: 

I was not in my seat at the commencement of the discussion of this 
resolution, and I am indebted to the information of gentlemen for my 
knowledge of the manner in which my name has been introduced by the 
delegate from Wayne. I know not under what pretext that assault was 
made upon me, especially as that gentleman was a stranger to me per- 
sonally, previous to the time I first met him in this hall. So far as I 
know my own feelings, they have been anything else than unkind towards 
l:im, and I have avoided in matter, manner and intention anything which 
might have given him the slightest cause of complaint. 

Nothing could have surprised me more than the language applied to 
me. Had I said an3^hing in matter or manner, or had 1 done anything 
v/hich he considered a cause of complaint on yesterday, and had he, either 
then or in private, asked an explanation, or suggested that I had done him 
an injustice, or wounded his feelings, or his pride on this floor, no man 
v/ould have been more anxious than myself to have made that atonement 
which is due one gentleman to another when he supposes he has been 
injured. 

I must, therefore, suppose that this has been somewhat a matter of 
premeditation of nightly concoction; perhaps not entirely prompted by 
the gentleman's own sense of offended feelings. I must be permitted to 
say, on this occasion, and I think I may appeal to my fellow delegates on 
this floor, whether my habit, either in the House or out of it, has been 
that of discourtesy to my equals and associates in debate. 

Little did I expect, sir, that we were to have new recruits enlisted in 
this crusade in reference to the political inconsistency of the humble indi- 
vidual before you. It is true that I partake of the frailty of my fellowmen. 
I pretend not to be infallible, either in politics, in opinion, or in judgment, 
and he who asserts his claims to confidence because of his own supposed 
infallibility and undeviating consistency, may sometimes learn a lesson by 
a review of his own life, to see how far his pretensions are sustained by 
a reference to his own history and political biography. If he shall feel 
incompetent to the task, I would advise him to call to his aid some kind 
friend. 



CHARLES A. WICKLIFFE, 403 

I have spent, by the kindness of my fellow citizens with whom I was 
born and brought up, almost a half century in public life. I have seen 
parties rise and fall, and political dynasties pass almost into oblivion in 
this Commonwealth, as well as in the Union. I have had, in an humble 
degree, a portion and part in some of these exciting scenes which have 
passed. 

I have had the occasion, sir, to review my own actions and my own 
opinions. I have seen on my pathway errors that experience and a more 
matured judgment have pointed out in my political course, and the part 
I have been called on to take in the party contests which have passed, 
yet I have the consolation, which to me is worth more than the opinion 
of the man, of to-day to know that in no politcal act of my life, when 
called upon to discharge the duties of public agent, have I ever been gov- 
erned by any other principle than a desire to promote the great interests 
of the Commonwealth as I understood and believed them to be at the time. 

I understand the delegate was pleased to say that I had been on both 
sides of the present question before the House. I thought I announced 
yesterday — and if the gentleman had done me the honor to listen to me, 
he would have understood it — the first opinions entertained by me on this 
question. I said I had come here, I had entered this hall, and before I 
had heard this debate, impressed with the opinion that something should 
be done in reference to consolidated constituencies, represented by con- 
solidated numbers in the legislative department of the government, but 
that the debate which had taken place had satisfied me that the mode 
proposed, ostracising and proscribing a portion of the freemen from a 
participation in the councils of the State, was not a just and correct mode 
of doing it. 

But, sir, the delegate from Wayne is not the first gentleman who has 
been pleased, within the halls of this House, to allude to what they call 
my political inconsistencies. Possibly, in the opinion of that gentleman 
and those who think with him, and whose purposes he may be serving, 
I have, in some respects, greatly politically sinned. But I would remind 
the gentlemen 'Vho live in glass houses not to throw stones," and he 
who has not changed his opinions, if he ever had any, upon some of the 
great leading questions of State or national policy and expediency which 
have arisen within the last thirty years, may be authorized to sit in judg- 
ment upon me; but I deny that right to either of the gentlemen who 
have assumed to be my accusers. I know not whether the delegate from 
Wayne is obnoxious to the charge of ever having changed any political 
opinion which he may have entertained, for to me his course is unknown 
and uncared for. Upon our introduction at the commencement of the ses- 
sion, he made a favorable impression, and I regret he has given me cause 
to change the opinion I then formed. 

I was elected a member of Congress from what was called the Louisville 
district, amidst the conflict for the presidency of the United States then 
waged between those distinguished individuals. Clay, Crawford, Jackson, 
Adams and Calhoun. In that contest, so long as the statesman from 
Kentucky was in the field, I was for him, as was at that time nine-tenths 
of the State of Kentucky, and I have no doubt the gentleman, if old 
enough to take part, cast his vote for him in the contest. This election 
for the office of President, as neither candidate received a majority, de- 
volved on the House of Representatives, of which I was an humble mem- 
ber, one of the twelve delegates from this State. As such, I was called upon 
to cast the sovereign voice of Kentucky between General Jackson and Mr. 



404 KENTVCKY ELOQUENCE 

Adams. It was the duty, aye, the bounden duty of the delegates from 
Kentucky to cast her votes against Adams and in favor of Jackson. 

We were not left to conjecture this opinion and decide upon our duty 
by our own judgment, but your Legislature was in session and I have the 
resolution they passed and the speeches made by the statesmen of that 
time, instructing me and calling upon me as one of the delegates charged 
with that high trust, by considerations that it is not necessary for me to 
state, to cast the vote as I did give it. It was in accordance with my own 
judgment, and I gave it with pleasure, but that has cost me trouble — 
though no regret, no tears. When I returned home to my constituency 
to give an account of my stewardship in thus carrying out their will and 
the orders of the Legislature, I found the very men — yes, sir, men who 
charged me with political inconsistency, who had been instrumental in 
procuring this legislative mandate, whose speeches in the Legislature I 
hold in my hand — upon the stump in my county and district, attempting 
to destroy the prospects of a young politician, to undermine the confidence 
of his constituency in him because he had acted honestly and obeyed the 
dictates of the Legislature, and the still higher commands of public senti- 
ment upon him. 

My constituency continued to return me to Congress for ten years, 
and, as you know, Mr. President, and you can do me the justice to say, 
longer than I desired to remain. There sprung up in my pathway, during 
a portion of my political pilgrimage in the national councils, questions 
about which, at one time, there seemed to be no division among the poli- 
ticians or the people of this State. I allude to the necessity of the United 
States Bank. I looked upon the power of Congress to charter an institu- 
tion of that kind as a question which had received the settled opinions of 
the people, or, as lawyers term it, it was "res adjudicata." It was only 
then a question of public policy and necessity, inculcated by events which 
took place in the War of 1812 and the consequent evils growing out of 
it — a deranged and prostrated paper currency. I thought General Jackson 
committed an error when he vetoed the bill to re-charter the bank. Was 
I alone in Kentucky in this opinion among those who voted with me and 
who with me contributed to the elevation to the presidency of that great 
man ? I thought him wrong in some measures that succeeded the veto of 
that act to re-charter that institution, and this difference upon a question of 
policy respecting the currency separated me from what was then called 
the Jackson party in Kentucky. And, during the excitement of subsequent 
elections and contests in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, this difference 
of opinion necessarily called down upon me the denunciation of the partisan 
presses of the day. I defended myself, and in this defense, I have no doubt, 
I dealt blows as hard as those I received, and probably as often as I 
deserved. 

Mr. President, sixty winters have made the impress of their frosts upon 
my head and men of to-day and others whose years have not improved 
their habits, or softened their feelings, take pleasure in perpetuating their 
names by connecting them, with political sins imputed to me. Among their 
charges, sir, I understand, the delegate has referred to the fact that I joined 
the administration of Mr. Tyler. 

It is true, sir, that, without any knowledge on my part, and without 
the slightest expectation, with no personal desire or political ambition to 
gratify sufficiently powerful to induce me to tear myself from the retire- 
ment of a quiet and happy home, upon the disruption of the Cabinet of 
Mr. Tyler, with the particulars of which I have nothing to do (and I would 



CHARLES A. WICKLIFFE. 406 

scorn to introduce them in this House, and harrow up the feelings or per- 
petuate an outrage upon the humblest individual in^ the community) , unex- 
pectedly, I received the appointment of Postmaster-General, accompanied 
by a private letter from that gentleman, with whom I had lived and been 
associated at Washinglon for many years upon terms of the utmost per- 
sonal kindness, and which 1 suppose begat in his bosom a confidence in my 
integrity and capacity for the duties of one of the most laborious depart- 
ments belonging to the Government. He placed my acceptance of that 
commission on the ground of private friendship to him, and without refer- 
ence to political considerations.. At the sacrifice of much individual comfort 
and individual convenience, I had the temerity, without consulting the 
delegate from Wayne, or the other gentleman in this House who thinks 
with him, to accept that office, and to discharge the duties to the best of 
my humble ability. What the judgment of public sentiment may be on 
my official acts and official duties, I will leave to be decided by my country, 
whose province it is, content to meet the decision. 

When the member from Wayne himself shall pass from this stage of 
existence; when, perhaps, there will be left scarcely a gravestone to tell 
the passerby who lies beneath the sod of the valley which covers his 
remains, the results of that administration, the consequences which flow 
from its measures, guided by no selfish or sectional policy, looking alone 
to the great interest of our great and common country, an administration 
standing amid the crash and rush of both great political parties for a time, 
each seeking who could be most powerful to crush it, disgrace its head 
and his humble associates — 1 say, when he shall have passed from the 
memory of man, and the historian shall come to record some of the events 
which have stamped and given it character, aye, sir, and I might say a 
new and independent destiny to our common country, and opened up to 
the world, broad and wide, her shores, her enterprise and liberty to the 
oppressed of all the world — justice will be done to those to whom it is the 
pleasure of others now seeking distinction to denounce and condemn. 

Sir, during my association with that administration, the question of 
the annexation of Texas was presented. I thought I saw that, unless the 
United States acted, and acted promptly, and with united public sentiment 
and political energy, our Western limits would be circumscribed by the 
little stream of the Sabine — ^that we should have an empire hostile to our 
institutions spreading along the most defenseless portion of our Southern 
frontier, the Southern slave-holding States. I thought I saw in the annexa- 
tion of that country an almost absolute necessity, if we desired to pre- 
serve and promote the prosperity and give quiet to the planter and cotton 
grower of that portion of the Union. I did not act alone. I acted, it is 
true, in accordance with my own judgment, but I always like to have that 
judgment aided by the counsels of older heads. I consulted some from 
my own State. Their advice to rrie was, by all means, accomplish the 
annexation of Texas; we must have it, and we ought to have it. I need 
not say who they were; there is one, at least, present who will bear witness. 
Sir, my surprise was great, I confess, when I looked across the mountains 
?,nd saw the political conflict of the presidential race of 1844, to find the 
very men who had advised me to the measure of annexation, on the 
stump denouncing it as a measure wicked, unholy and unworthy of our 
people. Some of these men now arraign me by a charge of a change in my 
political sentiments. 

Mr. President, it will be remembered that, during the years 1841 and 
1842-3, the Bank of the United States, which had originally charmed a 



406 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

large portion of my native State into its support, the supposed necessity 
of whose existence had led me to believe that a great error had been com- 
mitted by General Jackson, in the exercise of the veto power, exploded 
when the stockholders entered its vaults and opened its books, examined 
its papers and exposed its financial operations for a series of fifteen or 
twenty years; there was an exposure of political corruption and fraud in 
the financial operations of that bank, which stunk in the nostrils of the 
nation; transactions which had been concealed from a committee of Con- 
gress, sent to make an investigation into the condition of the bank, at 
the head of which was McDuffie and Colonel Johnson, of our State. Yes, 
Mr. President, so concealed as to induce that committee to report that all 
which had been charged against the bank was untrue and false. I believed 
it, but when the books were opened to the stockholders, they found their 
pockets robbed, the country cheated and themselves bankrupt. Yes, sir, 
there were children of a citizen of my own country, whose whole property 
was invested in that institution, some thirty or forty thousand dollars, 
robbed of every dollar of their estate. But that was only a drop in the 
bucket, compared with the other cases of loss. 1 became satisfied, on 
looking into the transactions of the bank thus exposed, and on a review 
of my former opinions of that man whose judgment was more matured, 
and different from mine, and stronger, of course, and better informed, 
that he was governed by the highest sense of justice in vetoing the bill; 
that he was right and I was wrong. And I had the boldness, the temerity, 
folly, perhaps, in the opinion of some, the feeling thus, not only to act 
upon a sense of right, but to acknowledge it. Who among us now advo- 
cates the charter of a United States Bank ? 

Whenever I am satisfied that I am wrong on a political question, a ques- 
tion of policy, or one involving a principle, I take the consequences of 
acknowledging that error. It is more magnanimous, more consoling to my 
conscience, than to persevere in error. And when the annexation of Texas 
was made the great leading question upon which the contest for the presi- 
dency of 1844 was made to turn, I had no choice but the choice which 
my judgment dictated, and that was the annexation of that country to 
the United States was demanded by the highest political and self-preserving 
principles in reference to our future destiny; and if my venerated father, 
then reposing in his grave, had been living, and a candidate for the presi- 
dency, and had opposed the annexation of Texas, I would have cast my 
little might in the scale against him. 

This contest brought me again into political union with the Democratic 
party. My principles of government ever have been democratic, and I hope 
ever will be. They have not, nor will not be made to depend upon ex- 
pediency or the choice of a President. The charge of inconsistency, come 
from what quarter it may, will not change the honest purpose of my soul — 
a desire to ever do right. Mr. President, I am in one respect like King 
Lear in the play — "Tray, Blanche and Sweetheart, all bark at me." Bark 
en, I say; I shall not calm your whistling. 

I beg pardon of this convention for thus throwing too much of my own 
aiTairs and political history before it. I could not do less. I hope I shall 
have no occasion again to do it, and I can assure the delegate who has 
been the immediate cause of thus compelling me to do what I most sincerely 
regret the necessity of doing, that I had no intention, purpose nor design 
of casting censure upon him, or wounding his feelings. My own self-respect 
and a regard for the deconim of this body forbid that I should, without 
cause, violate its sense of propriety. 



M. V. P. YEAMAN. 

[Marion V. P. Yeaman was born in Henderson, Ky.. April 28, 1867, and 
is the eldest living son of the Hon. Malcolm Yeaman, of Henderson, who for 
more than thirty years has been one of the most eminent members of the 
Kentucky bar. The ancestral home of the Yeamans was Blizabethtown. Here 
the grandmother of M. V. P. Yeaman (nee Helm, a sister of Governor Jno. 
L. Helm), who was left a widow in her early womanhood, reared a remark- 
able family of five sons, every one of whom attained eminence in the iouipit, 
or at the bar, in Kentucky, or other States.. M. V. P. Yeaman received his 
education in institutions of Kentucky and Virginia, and was ordained a Pres- 
byterian minster in 1889. After a brief pastorate in Kentucky he was called 
to Ferguson, Mo., one of the leading residence suburbs of St. Louis, from 
which place, after a signally successful pastorate of nearly sieven years, ho 
came to Harrodsburg, Ky.] 

THE CATASTROPHE OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 

"But the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a 
fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the tire a still small yoice." — 
I Kings 19:11-12. 

Delivered in the Assemhly Presbyterian Church at Harrodshurg, Ky., on 
th« Sunday following the San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906. 

The chief subject of our conversation for the past few days has been 
the catastrophe on the Pacific coast. It is natural that to-day should find 
us still contemplating the magnitude of that disaster; and it may also be 
profitable for us to examine the conclusions to which our thoughts have 
led us. We have been reading of how, in the early hours of the morning, 
people were aroused from sleep, or hurled from their beds, by the rocking 
of the earth; of how great structures tottered and fell, like houses that 
little children build with cards; of terrible destruction of human life; how 
fires were started on every hand, and of a beautiful city of three hundred 
and fifty thousand inhabitants becoming in a few hours a mass of blackened 
luins. 

It is human, in the light of such occurrences as that of last Wednesday, 
to ask certain questions. And, probably, the first that comes to every 
mind is: "Why should there be such suffering and misfortune in the 
world? Why such sudden and awful devastation?" Six years ago, six 
thousand lives were destroyed at Galveston; fifteen years ago-, twenty-two 
hundred at Johnstown; twenty years ago, hundreds more at Charleston; 
thirty thousand deaths in consequence of the eruption of Mt. Pelee in 1902; 
forty thousand by the earthquake at Lisbon in 1755, to say nothing of 
earlier calamities of every character — ^the millions upon millions of deaths 
during the plague that desolated Europe and Asia in the fourteenth century. 
*'Why," we ask, "such destruction of human life? If God be omnipotent, 
why? If God is a benevolent Being, why?" Would man, were he omnipo^ 
tent, have allowed the earthquake to spend its force beneath the foundations 
of a populous and beautiful city? If man could have rolled back the 
v/aters of the Red Sea, or have made powerless the flames of a seven-times 
heated furnace; would he not have said to the waters at Galveston: 
"Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther"? To the quivering earth at 



408 K^NTVCKY ELOQUENCE, 

Charleston and San Francisco: "Be thou powerless to destroy the lives, 
the homes and the property of this people." If not a sparrow falls without 
our Father's knowledge, had He no concern for the thousands of His 
homeless, human creatures in Golden Gate Park last night, shivering and 
hungry 'neath the twinkling stars, and mocked by the ceaseless lashing 
of the sea? Was it a Divine visitation, or judgment, in consequence of 
some provoking moral evil? Was Charleston a worse city than New 
Orleans, or Atlanta, or Memphis? Were any of them upon which great 
calamities have come more like Sodom or Gomorrah than others of the 
world's centers of population? Is San Francisco a worse city than New 
York, or Philadelphia, or Chicago? Are the cities and villages in the vicinity 
of Vesuvius more wicked than those of France, or Germany, or Spain? 
Surely, in no such claim will we find an answer to the questions we are 
asking. 

Read the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, and you 
find that Jesus, upon being told of certain Galileans whose blood Pilate 
had mingled with their sacrifices, said: '^Suppose ye that these Galileans 
were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? 
I tell you. Nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or 
those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think 
ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell 
you. Nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The eighteen 
were standing where the tower fell, and were killed. It would have been 
the same misfortune for good, or bad, men. We are not told that it was 
in the nature of punishment at all. Did not God give assurance in answer 
to the petitions of faithful Abraham, touching His determination to destroy 
Sodom — "I will not destroy it for ten's sake"? And when the patriarch 
had ceased his petitions, even then, did not Jehovah withhold destruction 
till He had first sent the angels to deliver the only God-fearing household 
there? San Francisco may be, like every other city, a wicked city, but 
San Francisco has her righteous men, a thousand-fold the number, too, that 
Sodom had. I do not say that her misfortune should not make her people 
stop and think, but other places are hardly prepared to say to her: "I am 
holier than thou." 

God governs the universe through natural laws, and we know that He 
does not suspend nor reverse these laws. The readjustment of the earth's 
crust to changing internal conditions produces the surface tremor we call 
the earthquake. A natural result — what happens to be in the way of the 
movement suffers. Fire, scattered in consequence of falling houses, will 
burn. A Divine intervention would be a miracle, as much as if your fall 
from your horse or carriage should be arrested in mid-air. A wind from 
the sea, with a velocity of one hundred and thirty miles an hour, drives 
the waters of the bay over a city having no sea-wall, bringing sixteen feet 
of water and destroying six thousand lives and millions of dollars worth 
of property. The pent-up forces of Vesuvius eject their lava and ashes 
to rain upon the surrounding cities and villages, and we see again only a 
natural result ; a condition growing out of the very nature of things. For 
it to be otherwise would be a miracle. And if the Divine government were 
a government by miracles man, in his every-day life, would soon come 
to depend upon miracles. He would become indifferent to threatened vio- 
lence and careless of provision for his bodily needs. 

And so we are driven back to the old question of "Why the presence 
of suffering and evil in the world ?" Turn to the book of Job, that sublime 



M. V. P. YE AM AN. 409 

drama of God's providence and man's suffering, and in that narrative of 
unparalleled calamities, we find the "suffering saint tlamoring for a hearing 
of his case." He has his wish, but his consolation is: "Behold, I am of 
small account." He is convinced, from a contemplation of God's wonder- 
ful works of creation and providence, to which his attention is directed, 
that God, though His ways are unsearchable, is nevertheless a God who 
IS wise and just and good. Job was then at ease, and of a quiet spirit, and 
is able to say : "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." 

Another thing: Catastrophies like that of last Wednesday do not bring 
us any new evidence of God's- wisdom or might in the government of the 
universe. Every day "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the 
firmament showeth his handiwork." He speaks to us in His ordinary 
providences and in the familiar facts of Nature; in the wonderful mechanism 
of our bodies; in the growth and beauty of tree and flower. Jesus and 
Solomon illustrated Divine providence not by the great upheavals of Nature, 
but by the color of the lily and the meaning of an ant-hill. 

Elijah, according to the text, found God not in the earthquake, or the 
fire, but in "the still, small voice." Of course, God gave the laws that 
accounted for those phenomena, but the lesson Elijah was to learn was 
that the Divine manifestation was not necessarily to be accompanied always 
by startling and terrific demonstration. We are not ready to say — I am 
not ready to say — ^that there is given us a deeper insight into God's provi- 
dence by disasters like that of last Wednesday than from the familiar 
happenings of daily life. ^'One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at 
ease and quiet. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never 
eateth with pleasure. They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms 
shall cover them." We soon forget that which is out of the ordinary. The 
spectacle of a ruined city will not convert America. I do not remember that 
Charleston, or Chicago, or Galveston, after their misfortunes, recorded 
any special religious awakenings. Dens of inquity will likely rise, phoenix- 
like, in California, as will her skyscrapers, her churches, her schools and her 
homes. San Francisco's calamity will be forgotten. Pages of your daily 
paper were filled with it on Thursday; a little less on Friday; less still to- 
morrow, and nothing of it in a week. The deepest and most abiding of 
Divine impressions are those made silently upon the human heart. "The 
Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the 
Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a still, small voice." He who 
hears and turns to God, as He is revealed to us through Jesus Christ His 
Son, will do so in response to the quiet and personal wooings of His Holy 
Spirit. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth ; so is every 
one that is bom of the Spirit." "The kingdom of God cometh not with 
observation." 

However, such reflections need not by any means turn us from those 
considerations which the sight of human suffering should ever inspire within 
sympathetic, human breasts. At such a time as this the question, "Who 
is my neighbor? Am I my brother's keeper?" finds a ready answer. 

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." 

We read of messages of sympathy from all the cities of America, and 
from even kings and rulers across the seas; offers of material assistance 
from every point ; an immediate appropriation of a million dollars from the 
national Congress, and all the people say, "Amen !" 



410 KENTVCK7 ELOQUENCE. 

S3anpathy! How do such occurrences as that of last Wednesday call 
for its exercise ! How it emphasizes the brotherhood of men ! 

"Wie share our mutual woes, 
Our mutual burdens bear; 
And often for each other flows 
The sympathizing tear." 

''And after the earthquake and the fire, a still, small voice." God calls 
to men and women everywhere to-day, just as He has been doing all along, 
through His Holy Spirit, to make their peace with Him. Do not wait then 
till disaster and misfortune drive you, or till all earthly props are gone, 
but in the peaceful quiet of this Sabbath mom may you hear His voice and 
come. "Behold, now is the accepted time." "To-day, if you will hear 
His voice, then harden not your heart." 



BENNETT H. YOUNG. 

[Bennett Henderson Young, LL. D., Lawyer, Louisville, Ky., was born 
in Nicholasville, Ky., May 25, 1843; educated at Bethel Academy, Nicholas- 
vile, Ky., Center College, Danville, Ky., Queens College, Toronto, Canada, 
and was graduated at Law Department of Queens College, Belfast, Ireland; 
M. A., South-western Presbyterian University; LL. D., Kings College; served 
in Confederate Army under General John H. Morgan; in command of the 
St. Alban's Raid; President Louisville Public Library; member of Filson 
Club; member Constitutional Convention 1890; Kentucky Representative to 
Paris Exposition in 1878; Major-General Commanding Kentucky Division 
United Confederate Veterans; President Kentucky Confederate Home; Pres- 
ident Kentucky Institute for the Blind; author of "History Constitutions of 
Kentucky," 1890; "History of Evangelistic Work in Kentucky," 1891; "His- 
tory of Jessamine County, Ky.," 1898; "History of the Battle of the Thames," 
1901; "History of the Division of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky," 
1898; "History of the Battle of Blue Licks;" Editor-in-chief "Kentucky Elo- 
quence," etc! 

KENTUCKIANS AT THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER RAISIN. 

An address delivered at the dedication of the monument erected at Mon- 
roe, Michigan, upon the site of the battlefield, September 1, 1904. The monu- 
ment was erected by the people of the State of Michigan to the memory of 
the Kentucky soldiers who were killed in the battle of River Raisin, most 
of whom were foully massacred. The sum of five thousand ($5,000) dollars 
was appropriated by the Michigan Legislature. About sixty years ago some 
of the bones of these gallant soldiers were taken up and sent to Detroit, and 
from there returned to Kentucky and buried in the lot belonging to the 
State in the beautiful cemetery at Frankfort. About four-fifths of the mur- 
dered men, however, never received any interment. The following inscrip- 
tion is engraved upon the monument: 

MICHIGAN'S TRIBUTE TO KENTUCKY. 

This Monument is dedicated to the Memory of the Heroes who lost 

their lives in our Country's defense in the Battle 

and Massacre of the River Raisin, 

January 22-23, 1813. 

Erected by the State of Michigan, 1904. 

The Detroit Free-Press, in giving an account of the occasion, had the 
following to say of the speaker: "When Colonel Bennett H. Young, of Ken- 
tucky, v/as introduced by Chairman Harry A. Conant, the air rang with 
cheers and the gallant Colonel could not doubt the sincerity of the applause. 
Colonel Young is a Kentuckian born and bred; the pride of his ancestors 
marks his very stride, the light of the bluegrass meadows and the hemp fields 
shines from his eyes; tall, he is a speaker who talks straight from the heart 
to the heart without airy flight of words, but with gestures that are convinc- 
ing. His eulogy of the soldiers of his State, who were slaughtered along 
the banks of the Raisin, was the feature of the entire program, and was only 
equaled by his words of appreciation for the kindly de^ds of his Michigan 
brethren." 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

War, in American parlance, is '^or^anized barbarism" and, as an old 
Italian proverb declares, ''It is hell turned loose." 

It was the fate of Kentucky from 1775 to 1814 to be subjected, in a 



412 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

peculiar degree, to the horrors which always follow in the train of warfare. 
The capture of Rliddell's and Martin's Station in 1780 by the English and 
Indians under Colonel Byrd, the battle of Blue Licks in 1782, and Floyd's 
Fork disaster a few days thereafter. Bowman's retreat in 1779, and St. 
Clair's defeat in 1790, the massacres by savages down to 1792, and the 
dreadful sacrifice Fate laid upon her people at Raisin and Meigs in 1813, 
for the life of a generation filled the people of Kentucky with immeasurable 
grief and left traces of sorrow and bereavement which half a century did 
not remove. 

When Congress faced the question of war, Kentucky's five members 
of the House of Representatives and her two Senators were unanimous for 
the declaration of hostilities and when, in June, 1812, the nation realized 
that the struggle was on, and that the republic, then in its childhood, was 
to join battle with the greatest world power, Kentucky's quota was more 
than filled in thirty days and thousands of her sons, aside from those per- 
mitted to volunteer, clamored to be allowed the privilege of fighting 
America's ancient foe. 

News, then transmitted by men on horseback across the m'ountains, 
came slowly, and it was near the 1st of July, 1812, that Kentuckians knew 
that war was begun. The superb military organizations then existing in the 
State made the completion of the quota easy. Men of all ranks clamored 
to be led against the enemy. It was not who would go, but who should 
be allowed to go. On August 14th, at Georgetown, Ky., three regiments 
were enlisted as United States soldiers. These men came largely from 
what is known as Central Kentucky, and were commanded by Colonels 
Allen, Lewis and Scott. 

During the war, she enlisted five per cent, of her entire white population. 
Over 16,000 Kentuckians, first and last, were engaged in this conflict. The 
statistics given me by an eminent military expert show that, during the 
entire conflict, from June, 1812, to January, I8l5, two and one-half years 
only, 1,848 men were killed and 3,740 wounded. Of these dead, Kentucky 
gave as her offering more than thirty-three per cent. 

The patriotism and courage of her sons met every call and, in the 
struggle to maintain the republic's honor and to defend the nation's rights, 
her people responded with an enthusiasm and readiness and made sacrifices 
which deserve a nation's gratitude. 

Kentucky's death-roll at Raisin and Meigs constitute nearly one-third 
of all who were killed in the entire war, and the loss of those who died 
by the tomahawk when prisoners, or those who fell in the conflict, made 
dreadful tribute from Kentucky for national glory and national defense. 

The news from the Raisin was slow in reaching the homes of those 
most concerned. Messengers on horse or those returning with pack-horses 
used to transport supplies were the first to bear the dreadful intelligence 
which was to blight so many homes and for years to overshadow so many 
hearts with deepest grief. One by one, these couriers of evil came. Doubt 
and hope stood out against each fresh herald of woe, but the time at last 
came when all delusions were brushed aside and the awful story and the 
fearful scenes of this battlefield stalked in frightfulest terror before the 
minds of those who mourned this horrible calamity; widows, orphans, 
sisters, mothers, brothers, sweethearts communed with each other in review- 
ing the desolation and anguish thus so unexpectedly brought into their 
lives. The whole State was clothed in grief; the dead, the barbarously 
treated dead, came from limited area of the Commonwealth, but rich and 



B ENNE TT H . YOUNG. 418 

poor, old and young, all over the State, wept with those who wept and 
bewailed with universal lamentation the direfulness of this cruel tragedy 
which had burst with overwhelming suddenness and shocking consternation 
upon the families of these noble and chivalrous Kentuckians. 

But there came a quick reaction; no despair touched a single heart; 
no misfortune could still the patriotic impulses. This great crime against 
humanity only aroused a deeper love of the dead and a truer, higher de- 
votion to the republic. The sacrifice had been the richest blood of Ken- 
tucky's sons. They had not only died for liberty, but they had died by 
merciless treachery under all the most brutal forms of savagery. The great 
and pitiless wrong must be avenged. iVlen and women spoke the hateful 
word "Raisin," with pale cheeks, compressed lips and wrathful eyes, and 
throughout the whole of Kentucky, east, west, north and south, there was 
ever reverberating the sad, portentous words : ''Remember the Raisin." 

Amongst the most enthusiastic of the nation's patriots was a youthful 
Kentucky Congressman. Bom in a Kentucky wooden fort in the darkest 
days of Kentucky's history (his mother was one of the women who 
walked in the face of death at Bryan's Station in 1782), elected to the 
Legislature before he was twenty-one years old, sent to Congress at twenty- 
five, no sooner had Congress adjourned in the summer of 1812 before 
he hastened to his State and organized a battalion for active operations 
in Ohio and Michigan. By the end of the year, he was at the head of a 
regiment and did valiant work for his country. At the expiration of the 
term of service, he again resumed his seat in Congress, but in February, 
1813, he left his place at the national capital to recruit another regiment 
of mounted men under the order of the Secretary of War, issued February 
13th. By May he had recruited the largest regiment organized in the West 
during the whole war. He refused to take his seat in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, claiming that the highest duty of a freeman was on the field 
of battle. His regiment left Kentucky in May and, from then until October, 
did most effective service in the Northwest and received from General 
Harrison and his other superiors only praise and commendation for the 
magnificent work of his men. His appeal to Kentuckians to "Remember 
the Raisin and Meigs" brought to his standard the choicest of Kentucky 
soldiers. Long before the battle of the Thames, the name of this brilliant 
young statesman-soldier, Richard M. Johnson, had won an affectionate and 
prominent place in the hearts of his people. . . . 

Among these Kentuckians now aligning for conflict at the Thames 
were men who had looked upon all that was awful at Raisin and terrible 
at Fort Meigs. All were animated by the highest courage and truest 
patriotism. Each man signalized his desire to march in the front; there 
were neither laggards nor cowards in that Kentucky army. The long line 
of cavalry, formed in columns, and the infantry, directed by aides and 
ofl^cers, moved with celerity and eagerness to find their proper positions 
in the order of battle. 

Proctor had hastily chosen the field of battle. It possessed many and 
strong strategic points. The Indians were posted in the brush along the 
eastern line of the great swamp, where they could sweep with deadliest 
rifle fire the narrow ridge between the two swamps, while the British regu- 
lars felt able to hold the limited space between the Longwood road and the 
small swamp, supported by the artillery, the approach to which was covered 
by an unbroken forest filled with large beech, walnut and maple trees. 

The American troops had marched seventy miles in three and a half 



414 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

days. They had already marched that day in line of battle about thirteen 
miles. They had kept up well with the cavalry, and the thought that a 
conflict was approaching filled their hearts with enthusiasm and courage. 
There was no time taken for the midday meal. The cavalry covered the 
front. A small number of pickets or spies protected the flank of the advanc- 
ing column, but the eleven regiments at most, four abreast, and the artillery, 
made a line over three miles in length. Fully an hour and a half was 
consumed in gettting the infantry in position. The regiment of mounted 
men in the meantime was reconnoitering and holding the enemy under 
close watch. 

As the associates and friends of the men murdered at Raisin and Meigs 
had been from the immediate locality of Lexington, it was deemed just 
that the brigade composed of soldiers from this immediate district should 
have the honor of fighting in the vanguard of the battle which was about 
to take place. Trotter's brigade, therefore, advanced to the front and was 
ordered to prepare to use the bayonet in the charge upon the British 
regulars. 

Here and there between the trees could be seen the bright accouter- 
ments of the Forty-first Regiment of King George's infantry, and no men 
ever entered into a battle with keener desire for conflict or awaited with 
more eagerness the order to advance. Amid hurried movements, and while 
the spirit of the men was thrilled to the enthusiastic joy which ever fills 
a true warrior's breast at battle's eve, the command, "Forward, charge!" 
rang out on the oppressive stillness which surrounded the expectant host. 

Hardly had the horses begun to move when another cry, terrible in its 
intensity and with foreboding wrath in its tones, filled the space over- 
shadowed by the mighty monarchs of the forest. From the stalwart 
throats of nearly six hundred Kentuckians there arose the cry, ^'Remember 
the Raisin !" As they lifted this mighty shout to heaven, they saw about 
them the forms of their murdered comrades and friends and relations. As 
the cry of these Kentuckians resounded through the forests, it fell upon 
the ears of the British regulars, who themselves had been at the battle 
of the Raisin and whose officers had connived, or, at least, permitted the 
slaughter of Allen, Graves, Hickman, Woolfolk, Simpson and their noble 
commands. 

These avenging warriors, catching the enthusiasm and delirium of 
combat, rose hig'h in their stirrups and plunged their spurs into the flanks 
of their chargers as they approached the enemy. No human power could 
resist such an assault. Cowering on the earth, or taking refuge behind 
trees in their line, the red-coats of the Forty-first British gave way. The 
second line, one hundred yards behind, fared no better than the first. As 
v/ell attempt to resist the cyclone or ward off the lightning as to stay 
this onslaught. The Kentucky horsemen were invincible. No sooner had 
they passed the second line than, wheeling about, they sprang to the ground 
and, with deadliest aim, poured their fire into the fear-stricken infantry, 
who, in their terror, begged for mercy and implored a pity which at Raisin 
and Meigs they had denied the friends and brothers of the men who had 
now defeated them. 

A quarter of a mile away, at the hear, in the edge of the forest, along 
the trail, was the commander of the British regulars. General Henry A. 
Proctor, who was responsible for the revolting butchery and brutality at 
Raisin and Meigs. His ear was quick to detect the danger. He knew his 
fate if the Kentuckians (many of whom had sworn that he should not 



BEt^^^ETTU.YOTJSQ. 416 

be taken alive) should capture him. He distinctly heard the tramp of 
Johnson's mounted men, and his ear caught that portentous and, to him, 
fateful cry: "Remember the Raisin!" Dismayed, he watched and waited 
for the result. He saw one line brushed out of the path of the horsemen 
or rush in confusion upon the second line. He beheld this last line disap- 
pear and the black hunting shirts and gray hunting breeches of the Ken- 
tuckians as they dismounted and turned upon his stricken and helpless 
grenadiers, and then, with his cowardly conscience impelling him, he turned 
his horse's head eastward and, accompanied by a small guard of horsemen, 
precipitately fled towards Burlington; hard pressed by Major DeVall Payne, 
he abandoned his baggage and followers and fled through the forest to 
escape capture. His ignominious conduct brought upon- him the contempt 
of his associates. He was tried by court-martial, disgraced and deprived 
of pay for six months, and was publicly reprimanded by his superiors by 
order of his government. 

A sterner conflict and more sanguinary fate awaited the second battalion, 
under the immediate command of Colonel Johnson and Major David 
Thompson. This battalion consisted of the companies of Captain James 
Coleman, Captain William Rice, Captain S. R. Combs, Captain James 
Davidson, Captain Jacob Stucker and Captain Robert Berry. On the 
right of this battalion was the gallant Colonel Richard M. Johnson, on 
the left Major Thompson. The second battalion was formed in two 
columns, on horseback, while one company was dismounted and on foot, 
placed in front of the right column, which was led by Colonel Johnson. 
The front of each column was something like five hundred feet. In front 
of these mounted was what was known as the "Forlorn Hope," in the 
courage and gallantry of which on that day was written one of the most 
heroic and sublimely brave acts which had ever been recorded of Ken- 
tucky men. The 'Torlom Hope" consisted of twenty men. Colonel 
Johnson himself rode by its side. It was led by the grand old pioneer, 
William Whitley, and was composed, so far as known, of the following 
persons: William Whitley, of Lincoln, enlisted as a private in James 
Davidson's company; Benjamin S. Chambers, quartermaster, a lawyer 
from, Scott county; Garrett Wall, forage master, Scott county; Eli Short, 
assistant forage master, Scott county ; Samuel A. Theobald, lawyer, Frank- 
lin county, judge advocate; Samuel Logan, second lieutenant, Coleman's 
company, from Harrison county; Robert Payne, private, James Davidson's 
company, probably from Lincoln or Scott county; Joseph Taylor, private, 
J. W. Reading's company; William S. Webb, private, Jacob Stucker's 
company, Scott county; John L. Mansfield, private, and a printer, Jacob 
Stucker's company, Scott county; Richard Spurr, private, Captain Samuel 
Combs' company, Fayette county; John McGunnigale, private. Captain 
Samuel Combs' company, Fayette county. 

These twenty men, with Colonel R. M. Johnson and the pioneer William 
Whitley, at once advanced to the front. The main line halted for a brief 
space, until the advance could assume position and, once they were placed, 
at the command, "Forward, march!" they quietly and calmly rode to 
death. In the thickets of the swamp in which Tecumseh and his red 
soldiers were, they peered in vain for a foe. Not a man stirred, but the 
ominous silence betokened only the more dreadful fire when the moment 
of contact should come. Along the narrow space they advanced. Stunted 
bushes and matted and deadened grass impeded their horses' feet, but these 
heroes urged their steeds forward with rapid walk, seeking the hidden foe 



416 KENTUCKY ELOQCENCE, 

in the morass that skirted the ground. This noble vanguard was the 
cynosure of all eyes and their fellows watched with almost stilled hearts to 
hear the signal guns which meant wounding and death to those twenty 
men who were daring so much. Fifteen hundred savages with their cocked 
rifles at their shoulders and with their fingers upon the triggers were waiting 
and watching only a few hundred yards away, and behind trees and fallen 
logs and thick underbrush, and with the silence of assassins, were longing 
for the word which should order them to pour death's missiles into the 
chivalrous squadron which, with absolute fearlessness, was seeking them 
in their lair. 

Into their minds came memories of those they loved, half a thousand 
miles away in Kentucky homes. Before their eyes came images of those 
dearer than life itself. Wives, sisters, mothers, sweethearts seemed to be 
gazing at them from every side and, with affection's instinct, they almost 
reached out to touch those imaginary forms which hovered about them 
in this supreme moment. Seconds were transformed into years. Almost 
breathless, and with anxiety which temporarily stilled every physical func- 
tion, the battalion waited for the Instant when Death's messengers should 
be turned loose and in their fury be hurled upon the brave men who 
composed the advance. The suspense was brief. A loud, clear savage 
voice rang out the word, "Fire!" The sharp cracking of half a hundred 
rifles was the response, and then the deafening sound of a thousand shots 
filled the air. The smoke concealed those who fired the guns, but the 
murderous effect was none the less terrible. Of the twenty, one alone 
escaped unhurt or failed to be unhorsed. A mass of fallen, struggling 
horses, a company of wounded, dying men, lay side by side. The bleeding 
beasts whinneyed to dead masters, and wounded masters laid their hands 
on the quivering bodies of their faithful steeds. Of the twenty, fifteen 
were dead, or to die. Their leader, with a dozen wounds, still sat erect, 
his judge advocate close to his side. The remainder were lost in the battle's 
confusion. 

The "Forlorn Hope" had met its fate. Its mission was to receive the 
fire of the savages, when their fellows and comrades might safely charge 
upon the red men with their guns unloaded. Its purpose had been ful- 
filled. The promise of its commander to save all life possible, spoken at 
Great Crossings, in Kentucky, on the l8th of May, had been annihilated. 
On this fateful field it had won imperishable renown and had carved out 
fadeless glory. It had been destroyed, but its members had magnified 
Kentucky manhood and written in the life blood of three-fourths of its 
members a story of courage and patriotic sacrifice which would live forever. 
Whenever and wherever their deed should be told, it would command the 
world's applause, and down through all the ages excite in the hearts of 
Kentuckians noblest pride in the glorious immortality they had purchased 
by their unselfish, superb and patriotic sacrifice for their country's cause. 

The experienced, courageous and valiant Tecumseh stood in the swamp 
with his red followers, encouraging them by his commands, reproving 
them by his sharp censure when they were disposed to run and threatening 
to kill all who refused to fight the white men who were now forcing the 
battle with such vigor and enthusiasm. The five hundred and fifty men 
of Johnson's battalion were reinforced by quite a number of volunteer 
infantrymen from Trotter's, Donaldson's and Simrall's regiments who, 
hearing the firing and the shouts, both of the Indians and white men, 
rushed to the assistance of their comrades. For a quarter of an hour, the 



BENNETT H. YOUNG. 417 

result of the battle seemed to be in doubt. Eighteen hundred Indians in the 
swamp and on their chosen battlefield, behind trees atid fallen logs, did not 
hesitate to throw down the gage of battle to the six hundred Kentuckians 
who now advanced to the assault. 

As the lines were pushed along through the morass, Colonel Johnson 
saw behind a fallen tree an Indian chief who, with vigorous words of com- 
mand and loud cheers and most earnest encouragement, was urging the 
red men to stand firm against the assaults of the white men. At the head 
of the columns opposing these men, Johnson, still sitting upon his white 
mare, rode around the tree and advanced upon the red man. At the first 
fire, he had lost by a wound the use of his left hand, in which he would 
carry his bridle. The Indian, placing his gun to his shoulder, immediately 
fired and added another to the many wounds already received by the gallant 
Kentuckian, and then, having exhausted his trusty rifle, with uplifted toma- 
hawk, he advanced upon the white man who, although wounded, was now 
riding upon him fearlessly and rapidly. The savage, jerking his tomahawk 
from his side and waiting for no assistance except his own strong arm, 
backed by his courageous soul, rushed upon Colonel Johnson to strike him 
from his horse, but when he had advanced to within four feet, Johnson, 
letting his horse loose, seized his pistol from his helpless left hand and 
fired. Being loaded with one bullet and three buckshot, at such close 
range, and piercing the heart of the Indian, he instantly fell dead. Some 
said it was Tecumseh. He was certainly a great leader, and it was at this 
time that somebody in the battle killed Tecumseh. The red men with 
amazement looked upon the sudden and unexpected death of their valiant 
chief. They heard no more his shouts of encouragement, saw no more 
the gallant wave of his hand and, with utter alarm and despair, and with 
a great cry of disappointment, they rushed from the battlefield. 

In a single instant every hope was crushed and every national aspiration 
perished. These children of the forest, taught by the incantations of the 
dead warrior's brother to believe that Tecumseh was immortal, saw him 
reel, fall and die as others of the race had done. Tecumseh's eloquence 
had made them confident that the hated white man's advance could be 
stayed, and that the nation of seventeen fires could not prevail against 
the red man protected and led by the "Great Spirit." With Tecumseh 
dead, to them life was a bitter and unbearable burden. It had neither hope 
nor joy. Confident that the white man's bullet was harmless against the 
heroic leader, when they saw him tremble with pain, then writhe, sink to 
the earth and die, they read in this awful tragedy the doom, of their race, 
the destruction of every cherished dream of success and understood that 
a remorseless fate had befallen and was to destroy them. They were 
not faithless, however, even in such awful gloom, to him who had led, en- 
couraged and directed them through so many years and in so many battles. 
Tenderly and reverently, they lifted the warm, bleeding and stilled body of 
the great chieftain into their arms; stalwart warriors became pallbearers. 
In the darkness of the night, with the sombre shade of the trees shutting out 
even the gleams of the moon, or the pale reflection of the stars, they walked 
in single file far out into the unexplored wilderness of the sylvan expanse 
to find a resting place for their beloved dead. 

They had done what an Indian had rarely done before^hey had left 
the corpses of their fellows who had fallen in the struggle to the mercy 
of their foes. They had violated a code of honor and war dear to them 
and their ancestors, and they hurried away from the scene of this fateful 

26 



418 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

conflict to give the ashes of Tecumseh repose where they felt the foot 
of the paleface would never tread and where his eyes would never look 
upon the grave of him they called the ^'Shooting Star," and who to them, 
in their simple faith, had been sent from the unseen spirit land to be 
their chieftain, their guide and their national leader. The great warrior 
liad loved the trees and the rivers and the waving grasses and the silence 
and grandeur of their surroundings; and thus, with the rustling of the 
leaves, in response to the tread of moccasined feet for a requiem, they 
moved on amid the darkness to a distant place, where a few of his com- 
rades, with their tomahawks and their hands, hollowed out a grave under 
a wide-spreading monarch of the forest, which was to stand guard over the 
sacred spot forever, and where in the peace, and yet in the terror of the 
tomb, Tecumseh was to rest forever. 

With skillful craft, they leveled the earth ; with cunning hand, they laid 
leaves upon it so that none could find it, and, unknown, unmarked, the 
Indian warrior's resting-place was forever hid from the white man's search. 
Persuasion, threats, rewards, promises, money, glory were all used without 
avail. The red man alone knew where Tecumseh was put away, and the 
red man died with the secret in his heart. 

His loyalty to the dust of his leader was proof against all research, 
all exploration, all investigation, and all inquiry. Grand in life, Tecumseh 
was and is grand in death. In the isolation and desolation of his burial, 
he becomes almost sublime, for, to this day, "no man knows where they 
have laid him." ... 

JOHN ALLEN. 

Among the Kentuckians who responded to their country's call in 1812, 
there was a young lawyer named John Allen. Brave, brilliant, handsome, 
popular, in the full tide of professional, social and political success and 
renown, the associate and peer of Henry Clay, Felix Grundy, John Rowan, 
John Pope and others of Kentucky's famous men, he raised one of the 
first regiments to meet Kentucky's quota. About thirty years of age, 
married to a brilliant and beautiful woman, the daughter of Ben Logan, 
a man whose place in Kentucky's history was second to none, with a 
little daughter only commencing to toddle and speak the sweet word, 
"Father," with a magnificent home jus! completed, in the very heart of 
God's country — ^the Bluegrass — with all that could make life beautiful, 
he marched away at his country's call. His tall, straight, handsome frame, 
clad in uniform, at the head of the very flower and chivalry of his State, 
clothed, too, in military dress, the people of Shelby ville, Kentucky, his 
home, thought that a nobler sight had never fallen on human eyes, as these 
patriots, all aglow with war's enthusiasm, marched away for this distant 
place to meet their country's foe. We have heard the sequel. When 
Colonel Wells and General Winchester were sore pressed by the English 
and the Indians, John Allen and Colonel Lewis, each with fifty men, sallied 
forth from their picket enclosure to assist and rally their comrades, and 
then stem the torrent of assault. In the defeat the brilliant young colonel 
was swept away, pleading with his people to stand and die rather than 
flee and be captured. A short distance from where we now stand, he was 
attacked by three Indians, two of them he killed with his sword and the 
third shot him to death. He died with his face to the foe. Stripped of 
his clothing, scalped, his body was left the prey for beasts. 



BENNETT H. YOUNG. 419 

To the Kentucky home, where the loving and beautiful young wife 
and baby were watching to catch the echo of the glory which it was believed 
would crown his life, one day came a soldier who had passed the ordeal 
of the Raisin. He told the wife that her husband was dead. She exclaimed, 
with tears bursting from her eyes, that it could not be so; that her husband 
could not thus die; that he would come again. Mournfully and sadly the 
soldier said : "Do not look for him ; I saw him in conflict with the Indians. 
He will never come back to you again." In this mother's heart hope 
would not die. Day by day, from the front porch of the new home, 
where love had planned a long, happy and joyous life, with hand shading 
her eyes, she peered for hours along the road he would pass if he ever 
returned. At night the shutter of her front window was thrown open 
and a candle placed on the sill, so that whenever he came, he would know 
that his wife was waiting to see his face again, longing to feel the imprint 
of a loving kiss from the soldier father who, amid the pomp and splendor 
of war, had gone away with the promise to come again. There was no 
sign of his coming. His bones, without sepulture, were resting in the 
woods at Raisin. The watching by day, the longing at night, the 
vision of the road and the unfailing light in the window could not bring 
the dead to life. The childish prattle of his infant daughter, the tears and 
anguish of his loving wife could bring no response from the dead warrior. 
In a little while, the wife grew thin, the caresses of her baby, the pleading 
for her father's home-coming, ate deep into the mother's heart. Friends 
noticed that the step was not so quick, and, if smiles came to her lips, 
they betokened a sorrow and grief that was wasting her life. For eight 
years, the wife watched the road. She trusted that the Indians had him 
still a captive. For eight years, those who passed the great highway from 
Lexington to Louisville saw the light in the window. They knew why it 
was there and passed it in tender silence and mournful sympathy. And 
so one day death forced the issue. As the dim twilight spread over the 
landscape and the gloaming of the evening hushed the toil and labor of 
the farm, and Nature with darkness was urging the world to sleep, the 
widow, with wasted hands and emaciated form, looked out upon the 
stillness and quiet of the departing day and, with the light of heaven and 
the joy of love in her eyes, she pressed her daughter to her bosom and 
said : "John is come, the candle need not be lighted to-night," and, with 
feeble fingers pressing open her broken heart, she passed into the abode 
of the immortals, and with the angels in that blessed land, where sorrow, 
separations and tears are never known, the hero of Raisin and his faithful 
wife were united eternally. 



TRIBUTE TO WINNIE DAVIS. 

("THE DAUGHTER OF THE CONFEDERACY.") 

A eulogy delivered before the United Confederate Veterans' Association 
at its session in Charleston, S. C, May 11, 1899. General John B. Gordon, 
Commander-in-Chief, when introducing Colonel Young to the vast audience, 
said that he was the best fitted of living Confederates to perform this sad 
and tender duty to the beloved woman in whose memory the survivors of 
the armies of the South are now assembled. 

The most distinguished divine of the seventeenth century, when 
preaching the funeral of Louis XIV, the greatest of all French rulers, as he 



420 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

gazed upon the deceased king, cold, pallid, powerless, expressionless, lifted 
his hands to heaven and, with tears streaming down his cheeks, exclaimed : 
*There is nothing great but God." 

And, comrades, as we recall the beautiful, beloved and winsome face 
and form of 'The Daughkr of the Confederacy," as she stood in our 
presence less than a year ago at Atlanta, and, with joy and pride, received 
anew our knightly admiration and fealty, and as we now realize that she 
is no more, but sleeps in death, we, too, in pathetic and profoundest sorrow, 
turn our eyes heavenward and cry out : "God alone is great." 

The love, devotion and homage of the surviving heroes of the Southern 
armies could not avail to stay the hand of the invincible conqueror. Death. 
Despite the fervid protest, the importunate prayer of valiant thousands, 
who oftentimes without hope, and always without fear, fought for the 
South, the inexorable decree has been executed and, with bowed heads and 
anguished hearts, we speak tenderest praise for her who occupied the 
first place in the affections of the living men who are part of that superb 
host which made the glory and the fame of the Confederacy eternal. 

The practical spirit of the present times would say that the age of 
chivalry is gone; but, as the representatives and descendants of an ever- 
chivalrous people, we can confidently challenge this coarse conclusion — 
the outgrowth of a period marked by the exaltation of money and money- 
getting — and point to the love of Southern men for this child whom 
illustrious warriors adopted and were proud to claim as their own, and 
confidently aver that, whatever may be said of others, in the hearts of 
Confederate soldiers there still bums with unquenchable flame and uncon- 
querable force that spirit which makes men gallant, heroic and true. 

There are occasions when the hush and solemnity of death becomes 
intensest eloquence, and speak with a pathos and power that are simply 
immeasurable. No exhibition ever witnessed in any land is more touching, 
no emotion ever aroused in human heart more magnanimous, no offering 
more unselfish, no attachment more generous than this affection Con- 
federate veterans tendered in life, and now declare in death, for the 
daughter of Jefferson Davis. 

A subtle and mysterious instinct, if not revelation, tells us that those 
who have departed from earth look down upon the places whence they have 
gone and take note of the events transpiring amongst men; and to-day, 
across that mysterious land which separates the seen from the unseen, we 
send greetings to the spirit of our dead daughter and give her assurance 
of our unchanging love and lasting remembrance. 

Living, she was the pride of our association; dead, she is revered and 
loved by those who, while she was among them, esteemed her their choicest 
treasure and the most precious Df the glorious possessions which the 
memories and sacrifices of the great war created in the minds of the 
Confederate survivors. 

The gentlest and noblest of all our members has gone down amid the 
darkness and shadows of death. The faithful, the dutiful, the beautiful, 
the only Daughter of the Confederacy has been summoned to the land 
of the immortals; and it is fitting, as we are gathered in this annual reunion 
— ^the first since her decease — to offer a tribute of affection to her whom 
we all loved and whose life, character and conduct were such that they 
silenced all criticism, repressed all envy and created everywhere manliest 
devotion and boundless admiration. 

Only a few brief months have elapsed since, in the fullness of a matured 



BENNETT H. YOUNG. 421 

womanhood, in the splendor of a superb filial consecration and with a 
simple and unaffected appreciation, for the last time, she received the 
enthusiastic cheers and unqualified adoration of her Confederate fathers 
and friends; and in all that vast assemblage that greeted her as only Con- 
federate soldiers could greet, there was not a single heart which failed 
to respond to that intense rapture and that impassioned delight her welcome 
presence always evoked. None then, as ever before, denied her the most 
fervent benedictions or withheld from her sincerest invocation. 

Born amid the conflicts of the mightiest war the world has ever wit- 
nessed, cradled within the sound of the cannon's roar, and often awakened 
from sleep by the rattle of the musketry which defended the capital of 
the country for which her father offered the costliest sacrifice of all those 
who defended its life and its name; in her very infancy made to feel the 
deepest grief in the misfortunes and indignity heaped upon him who was 
the President of the nation the South so heroically struggled to maintain, 
she had experiences which have only come into one life during all the 
ages of the world. 

Enemies sought to traduce her father's fame, to destroy his life and 
discredit the purity and grandeur of hfs patriotism, but she was constant 
amid all his persecutions and misfortunes. He suffered for his people, 
and she with and for him, and to the end she was true to his name, true 
to him and true to the people who loved him. 

No other woman in the history of the world ever held such a place 
as our Daughter of the Confederacy. The adopted child of the greatest 
war's heroes, the idol of those who followed Lee, Jackson, the Johnstons, 
Forrest, Stuart and Morgan — the men who, though refused final victory by 
Fate, have been crowned with a glorious immortality; she had all that 
noblest sentiment, faithfulest loyalty and most chivalrous devotion could 
bestow, and neither affection nor ambition could add anything to the superb 
crown which Confederates have placed on her brow. 

Earth can yield no purer and no more generous love than that which 
the men and women of the Confederacy bore Winnie Davis. It caught the 
impress of heavenly touch and felt the mark of an angelic birth. No selfish- 
ness tarnished its resplendent brightness, no insincerity marred its exceeding 
tenderness, no limit prescribed its inexpressible gentleness and no figures 
could calculate its immeasurable depths. It was a sentiment, but it was 
exalting, ennobling, elevating and in every way worth of the most heroic 
and sublimest of human emotions. 

She held undisputed sway over millions of hearts; all who loved the 
Confederacy loved her; all who gloried in its splendid history and its 
unfading renown remembered her. 

Her charming name gave her a marvelous influence in every Southern 
home and heart, and, seen or unseen, she was the heroine of all those who 
loved the Confederate States or had part or parcel in their unparalleled 
sacrifices for the cause of truth and liberty. 

The love of her people for this their child was separate and apart 
from all other loves. Her wondrous devotion to her father, her constant 
and unselfish ministrations to him in the declining years of his isolated 
life, her filial help in his literary labors — ^the chiefest of which was his 
defense of his nation in its claim to separate existence and the righteousness 
of its cause — and the absolute consecration of her splendid womanhood 
to his companionship and solace, fill the hearts of all loyal Confederates 
with an admiration and gratitude which are both pathetic and eternal. 



422 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

The ordinary loves of human souls wax and wane; they are not always 
equal in their streng^th and flow, but this love to ''Our Daughter" knew no 
decrease in its irresistible and unchanging current. Her presence was not 
needful to quicken its impulses, and her absence did not slacken its fervor. 
As she stood alone in the splendor of her position as the only Daughter 
of the Confederacy, she had no cause to fear rivalry and never any reason 
to question the loyalty of the hearts of all who claimed her as their child. 

When the shadows of time were lengthening about the heart and 
home of Jefferson Davis, and the dim, fading light, death's forerunner, 
cast its softening rays across the paths he must tread; when the waming 
echoes from the immortal land were caught by the hills about his mortal 
abode; when the mystic lore of coming events, which deepens with life's 
sunset, whispered in the ear of the patient and heroic father that the 
parting of ways for him and his beloved child was only a little way ahead, 
he bethought him of her future and, with unquestioning faith and unwaver- 
ing confidence, he committed her protection and her care to the people he 
had loved so well. 

The misfortunes which came to him as the head of the Confederate 
States left him no store of wealth from which to provide endowment to 
shield from want, or to construct mausoleum to honor in death; but he 
devised her, as his richest and noblest legacy, to a generous nation. She 
was to him of value, which was incomparable with gold or costliest gem. 
That absolute trust in the generosity of Southern people has met worthiest 
response. Loved, honored, adored in her life, her sisters of the Confederacy, 
in her death, have builded her monument, which, though simple in its 
structure, is voiceful of a love and admiration which will abide forever. 

She rests in the bosom of the State which gave her birth and which, 
at the end, offered her repose amid the tombs of her most illustrious 
children. 

War has yielded Virginia "richest spoils in the ashes of her brave"; 
her champions of civil liberty have written most glorious memorials on 
the pages of human history; her defenders of religious freedom have 
erected in grateful souls a remembrance and thankfulness as indestructible 
as heaven itself; her sons have formulated the great title deeds of universal 
equality before the law, and now this loving mother of sach vast treasure 
of goodness and greatness, with yearning maternal pride, claims the cher- 
ished dust of our daughter. As future generations walk amongst these 
reminders of a glorious past, there will be no grave amid these renowned 
and sacred sepulchres which will invoke profounder or gentler emotions, 
or call forth tenderer memories, than that of the adopted child of the 
Confederacy. 

On the banks of the James river, close to where, nearly three hundred 
years ago, came the cavalier, imparting to Southern manhood the uplifting 
power of his genius, his courage and his chivalry, they have given her lasting 
sepulchre. The breezes from every hillside, valley and mountain of the 
Southland shall bear tenderest benedictions to her tomb, and the rippling 
waters of the stream beside which she rests — fresh from the mountain tops 
which pierce the blue skies overhanging the mighty Alleghanies — shall 
murmur softest requiem by her grave ; and, as these flow into the mighty 
ocean, they will be taken up by the chainless winds which sweep with 
unbroken power the face of the great deep and, in harmonious melody, tell 
the story to all the world of the marvelous and wondrous love of the people 
who fought for the lost but glorified cause of the South for Winnie Davis, 
*The Daughter of the Confederacy." 



WILLIAM O. BRADLEY. 

[William O'Connell Bradley, Governor of Kentucky 1S95-99. See extended 
biographical sketch on page 63.] 

OLD KENTUCKY HOME 

An oration delivered at the dedication of the Kentucky Building at the 
World's Exposition, Chicago, 111., June 1, 1893. 

The Kentucky Building at the great Chicago Exposition was formally 
handed over by the commissioners, on the 1st day of June, to Governor BrowTi, 
who received it in behalf of the State in a befitting manner. He then intro- 
duced Colonel W. O. Bradley, the Orator of the day, who spoke as follows: 

Into this splendid presence we come to dedicate the "Old Kentucky 
Home." Surrounded as it is by the buildings of the other States, it is 
appropriate that, while honoring Kentucky, we should honor the nation as 
well. To-day, the history of our country passes before us in grand panor- 
amic view. The humble colonies which, but little more than one hundred 
years ago, gave utterance to that immortal declaration that went ringing 
round the worid, have been transformed, as by the magician's wand, into 
the richest country on the globe, the workshop and the granary of the 
world. The principles then enunciated expanded as the years rolled on, 
until the last vestige of slavery that obscured the flag was torn away and 
its unveiled stars lighted the world. Meanwhile, we have been taught 
that poverty is not a badge of inferiority, but that intelligence and true 
manhood alone constitute the standard of American citizenship. From 
every cabin there is a pathway that leads to fame, and along its unpreten- 
tious course to the chief magistracy have passed the nation's most illus- 
trious sons. In view of this almost boundless wealth, these wonderful 
possibilities, this perfect liberty, let us renew our vows at freedom's shrine, 
and form higher and nobler resolutions for earnest and patriotic endeavor 
for the future which spreads so invitingly before us. Let us not forget 
that this nation was created by the people, that it is founded on their 
intelligence and patriotism, and that its perpetuity depends on the ceaseless 
cultivation of the one and the unfettered promotion of the other; that 
education is the fountain of national prosperity and, if neglected, the 
republic must sooner or later take its place jn the scepterless empire of 
forgotten dust. Let us strive to awaken the mind and conscience of the 
masses to a realization of the truth, that party fealty should at all times 
be held subservient to the public good, and that after each contest for 
national supremacy, the contending waves of political strife should sink to 
rest as the billows after the storm. 

In this dedication, Kentucky gives homage to the undaunted courage, 
indomitable perseverance and unerring judgment of Christopher Columbus. 
The sheen of his fame extends across the waters, culminating here in a 
blaze of glory. 

But, while we congratulate ourselves on the country's splendid progress 
and the liberality of its institutions, while we honor the memory of men, 
we should remember that, for all we are and all we hope to be, we owe 



424 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

the first and most sacred debt of gratitude to the power that directed the 
caravals of Columbus across the trackless deep ; that strengthened the arm 
of Washington in the struggle for independence; that has watched over 
us with so much tenderness during all these eventful years; and the State 
and nation should, on bended knee, with reverential voice, give thanks to 
Mim "who layeth the beams of his chamber in the waters and rideth on 
the wings of the wind." 

This day, with her sister States, Kentucky joins in freedom's swelling 
chorus as it sweeps from sea to sea. With them she extends, in hos- 
pitality, a hand that never struck defenseless foe and never knew dishonor. 
God bless Kentucky! We would not part with one atom of her soil or 
one line of her history. Would that I might weave a fitting garland for 
her brow; would that I possessed the brush and genius of Raphael, that 
I might paint her as she is; would that with the chisel of Phidias 1 might 
create anew the forms and features of her glorious sons; would that 
with the descriptive power and vivid imagery of Byron I might portray 
the lives and actions of her heroes and statesmen ; would that I were gifted 
with the sublime and soaring melody of Milton, that I might charm the 
world with the song of her glory. But even then I should be unable to 
reproduce the verdure of her fields, the grandeur of her mountains, the 
brightness of her skies, the heroism of her people, the wisdom of her states- 
men and the beautiy of her women — God bless them — ^'the fairest that 
e'er the sun shown on." 

As convincing proof of the truth of this claim of Kentucky superiority, 
we point with pride to the chief lady officer of this Exposition. It is 
difficult to conjecture what would have become of this great State of 
Illinois had not Kentucky given her Lincoln, Stevenson, Cullom, Carter 
Harrison, Oglesby and Mrs. Palmer. 

One hundred and one years ago this day, Kentucky was admitted into 
the Union. She was among the first to enter, and will be the last to leave 
it. Her history has been eventful. The trials, endurance and heroism 
of pioneer life were never more fully exemplified elsewhere. Harrod, 
Boone, Kenton, Clark, McAfee, Whitley and Logan are names blended 
with hers as the warp is blended with the woof. They hewed their way 
through forests primeval and drove the savage beyond her borders. After 
them came the pioneer statesmen Marshall, Bullitt, Nicholas, Brown, Breck- 
inridge and Clay. The sons of these knight errants of civilization inherited 
the endurance, bravery and ability of their sires. No wonder, then, it is 
that the name of Kentucky is famous throughout the world. 

Her statesmen have taken a leading place in every great contest since 
she became a State. In every battle fought for the honor and safety of 
the republic, she has taken an important and enviable part. The blood 
of her sons has enriched every field and their deeds illumined every page 
of the nation's history. In the beautiful cemetery, that from the frowning 
cliif overlooks Kentucky's placid waters, sleep many of her bravest sons. 
The monument to gallant Richard Johnson tells the glory of the Thames, 
while, within its shadow, lie the remains of McKee, Clay and others, borne 
by loving hands from bloody Buena Vista. Above them the State has 
reared a monument, to whose base the rising generation may go for patri- 
ctic inspiration and read the simple story of the brave and true, whose 
death and lives as well added luster to the name of their dearly beloved 
Commonwealth. In life they loved their State, in death she has not 
forgotten them. 



WILLIAM 0. BRADLEY. 426 

Nor would we draw the veil over the Civil War that swept with 
cyclonic fury across the State, for the anguish and desolation that followed 
in its path are more than compensated by its splendid achievements. From 
Kentucky came the two chief actors in that memorable struggle — Lincoln 
and Davis. The one, imbued with the zealous faith of Peter the Hermit, 
wielded the axe of Richard ; the other, endowed with the chivalry of Bayard, 
wielded the scimitar of Saladin. On either side Kentuckians went forth 
to battle, and, wherever they fought or fell, won fresh laurels for their 
mother's crown. It is not proper at this time that we should enter into 
a discussion of the cause or merit of that great conflict. Its glories belong 
to us; its animosities to oblivion. Nature, with vines and flowers, has 
obliterated every mark that defaced the landscape; the roar of cannon 
has been succeeded by the sad, sweet notes of the dove, while Time has 
healed every wound and, with fingers kindly deft, erased malicious hate 
from every heart. With equal warmth the same bright sun shines over 
all; the same pure stars their ceaseless vigils keep above the silent chambers 
ot her soldier dead, while Kentucky, with impartial tenderness, holds their 
ashes in her bosom, their memories in her heart. From their mingled dust 
has bloomed the flower of Hope. Forever perish the impious hand that 
would pluck it from the stem. 

In coming years, after the survivors of the blue and gray have crossed 
the shadowy line, their backs to time, their faces to eternity, should foes 
without or enemies within assault this fair fabric of constitutional liberty, 
the Hobsons and Morgans, the Harlans and Blackbums, the Frys and 
Lewises, the Landrams and Helms, the Colliers and Dukes, the Rousseaus 
and Prestons, the Clays and Johnsons, the Boyles and Hansons, the Kellys 
and Marshalls, the Nelsons and Breckinridges will be found marching, side 
by side, under the dear old flag, protecting its shining folds from every 
stain and planting it in triumph wherever honor points or duty calls. 

To mention the names of all Kentucky's sons who have won reno'wn 
would require more than the time allotted now. In the realm of states- 
manship, we point with pride to Beck, Speed, Breckinridge, Letcher, Crit- 
tenden, Clay and Lincoln. In surgery, to Jackson, Dudley and McDowell. 
In journalism, to Penn, Harney and Prentice. In theology, to Bascom, 
Waller, Johnson, Rice and Breckinridge. In invention, to Kelley, Rumsey 
and Barlow. In jurisprudence, to Owsley, Nicholas, Boyle and Robertson. 
In oratory, to Marshall, Barry, Daviess and Menifee. In advocacy, to 
Rowan, Hardin and Wickliflfe. 

Proud as she is of these departed sons, Kentucky may be congratulated 
upon the fact that she has within her borders living sons whose ability, 
learning and distinction in all the avenues of life are not surpassed by those 
who left her the legacy of their renown. 

From Transylvania, Georgetown and Centre College have graduated 
many able and brilliant men, who, as congressmen, governors, senators, 
judges and vice-presidents, have reflected a halo around the names of Rice, 
Campbell and Young. 

It was the hand of a Kentuckian that wrote the immortal proclamation 
which struck the chains from four million human beings. In common 
with Illinois, we revere his memory. Kentucky gave him birth, Illinois 
a home, the republic its most exalted station. In return, he gave freedom 
to a race, peace to the nation, his life to liberty and to posterity a name, 
the most illustrious in all the tide of time. 

While contemplating Kentucky's achievements, we are not unmindful 



426 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

of her faults. We know that she does not, in wealth and progress, occupy 
the position to which she is entitled, but she is awakening from her lethargy; 
she has entered with spirit and determination the race for supremacy, and 
strong of arm and swift of foot must be the State that passes her t)efore 
the goal is won. There is no State in the Union that possesses so many 
natural advantages. She has forests that have scarce felt the stroke of 
the woodsman's axe, water power sufficient to propel the machinery of the 
world, inexhaustible deposits of coal, the swiftest horses, the most valuable 
cattle, a fruitful soil that is never ungrateful to the husbandman, and a 
people, whose rugged honesty, open-handed hospitality, lofty chivalry and 
native intelligence are unsurpassed in any clime. To-day she invites, not 
the pauper and the anarchist, but all the worthy people of the world who 
may desire new homes to come and sit down under her roof tree, to seek 
the hidden wealth of her mountains, or revel in the beauties of her pastoral 
repose where the bluegrass spreads its verdure, the tassels of the com 
bend gracefully in the breeze and the golden grain in rich profusion falls at 
the reapers' feet. 

All honor to Kentucky and Kentuckians; may her future be even more 
glorious than her past; may her name grow brighter with each coming 
sunrise and her fame broader with each setting sun; may her matchless 
daughters continue to occupy the same high plane of • womanhood, their 
beauty surpassed alone by their Christian virtues; may her sons, with sword 
and pen, write more enduring and illustrious names on the pillars of the 
nation's temple than those who have gone before, and may her children 
never forget God or betray their country; and may all her sister States 
move grandly forward, overcoming every obstacle, accomplishing every 
desire, until the nation shall become the perfection of human liberty and 
wisdom, the anointed of God. 

"Lord of the universe! shield us and guide us, 
Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun! 
Thou hast united us, who shall divide us? 
Keep us, oh, keep us, the Many in One! 

Up with our banner bright. 

Sprinkled with starry light; 
Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore; 

While through the sounding sky, 

I^ud rings the nation's cry, — 
Union and Liberty! — one evermore!" 



CURTIS F. BURNAM. 

[Curtis F. Burnam, Lawyer, Richmond, Ky., was born at Richmond, Ky., 
May 24, 1820; he graduated from Yale as valedictorian in 1840; He can- 
vassed the State in 1849 in behalf of the constitutional measures which 
would have provided gradual abolition of slavery in the State. He was ofttjn 
in the State Legislature, performing most important services' during tbe 
Civil War, and received the Republican support for United States Senator; 
in 1875 he was appointed by President Grant Assistant and Acting Secretary 
of the United States Treasury; member of the Constitutional Convention 
of Kentucky in 1890; twice elected to the State Senate without opposition, 
his present term expiring in 1909.] 

ALL HONOR TO THE LAIRD OF SKIBO CASTLE 

An oration delivered at the laying of the comer stone of the Carnegie 
Library, at Berea College, Berea, Ky., June 7, 1905. 

■ I . ^ ■ ^ ■ ' ■" 

A few years ago, the finishing touches were made to the Congressional 
Library Building in Washington, and to-day it stands in beauty and mag- 
nificance the admiration of all beholders. Nothing superior to it, for 
similar purposes, can be recalled, from the time when the Alexandrian 
Library was burned. At no time, nowhere, has it been equaled, and it 
has been said by a foreign minister that it was well worth a trip across 
the Atlantic ocean to see it. 

The millions of money expended by the Government on the Capitol, 
the department buildings, the parks, the streets, the flower gardens, the 
cemeteries, the art museums, the arsenal, the navy yard, and especially 
upon the monuments in marble and bronze to the nation's illustrious dead, 
have made Washington already the rival of Paris, and destined to become 
the most attractive and beautiful city on the globe. This is as it should 
be. The people, so far from complaining of the cost, with enthusiasm 
crown these works with laurels. 

Ours is, like that of the Athenians in the reign of Pericles, the enthusi- 
asm of a people yet young, who glory in the fame of their ancestors who 
founded and of those who died to save this imperial republic. 

We have seen, in less than a century and a half, their work grow from 
small beginnings to be one of the great world powers, made illustrious by 
achievement in arts and arms, by wealth, in all that gives comfort to life 
and satisfies the immortal longings for the future. May we never forget 
the laws by which these blessings are to be preserved. These laws con- 
tinue eternally the same, and they teach that the true grandeur of nations 
is most largely found in righteousness and peace, and that the uplifting 
of humanity is more largely still dependent on the morals and intellectual 
training of the masses. 

Napoleon the Great asked Madame De Stael how he could best promote 
the glory of France; the answer was: "Pour instruction on the heads 
of the French people. You owe them that baptism," 

His visit to the Congressional Library may have had some influence 
in directing the attention of the Scottish philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, 
to the same ends — ^to strengthen a long-cherished purpose. At all events, 



428 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

this gentleman, who had by thrift and patient labor and sound judgment, 
accumulated an enormous fortune, reached the conclusion that he would 
die poor, or, rather, that he would administer his estate while living, and 
not leave it to be squandered by prodigal heirs or faithless trustees; and 
so, for the good of mankind, he has given more than one hundred millions 
of money, not tainted money, but money fairly made, money which not 
even Dr. Washington Gladden would discount. All honor to the Laird 
of Skibo Castle, the princely blacksmith of Pittsburg ! 

In the line of his donations, he has made many for the establishment 
cf libraries in the East and South, the North and West, and among those 
benefactions Berea College has been remembered, and we are assembled 
here to-day to lay the comer stone of a building which shall perpetuate 
his fame among these people, and whose growing contents shall give light 
and pleasure to those who, as the years roll on, shall be instructors and 
pupils and visitors in these college halls. Such a gift can never be over- 
valued. 

Mr. Longfellow, in his exquisite poem, the "Morituri Salutamus," speaks 
of the sweet serenity of books — good books, all the way up, from the 
pleasing companions of little girls and boys to the immortal epics of Milton 
and Homer, the sublime tragedies of Prometheus and Hamlet. 

The Laureate Southey said of himself: 

'•My days among the dead are past; 

Around me I behold, 
Where'er these casual eyes are cast, 
The mighty minds of old.' 

So dear is the library to the scholar. 

The making of a great library is not a creation, but a growth. This 
is attested by the vast number of books in the great libraries of the world 
and the many thousands of new books annually published ; and both dem- 
onstrate the importance of careful selections and discrimination. They 
must embrace the needs of all classes of readers. Books are the working 
tools of the professional man, the statesman, the lawyer, the theologian, 
the physician, the artist, and long, well-filled alcoves must be reserved for 
them. 

Poetry, romance, biography, history, these are the charm of the leisure 
hours, alike of youth and old age. But to the laboring man they are of 
countless value. Here he finds how the toils and privations of men of 
humble birth and iron fortune have led up from small beginnings to those 
grand achievements in mechanism and scientific discovery, which have 
changed the face of the world and brought the nations together, time and 
distance being obliterated. 

Our wonderful patent office show's the marvelous improvements made 
by our countrymen, from the time of Whitney, with his cotton gin, to 
Edison, the wizard of our age, with his thousand patents. 

But of all books which make a fibrary complete, those of the great 
historians will, to the general reader, be ever the most attractive, tracing 
the progression of nations and individual men from the patriarchs before 
the flood, the rise and fall of empires and the achievements of heroes from 
Alexander to Grant and from Epaminondas to Togo and enriching the 
literature of land and sea. 

But we must not linger over these reflections. You expect something 
more practical and personal as to the past, the present and the future of 



CVI^TISF. BURNAM. 429 

Berea College. For its past history, I can do no better than to urge you 
to read the truthful and pleasing volume, lately published by the venerable 
Dr. Rogers, a man identified with the college from its very foundation 
and largely instrumental in building it up, despite obloquy, violence and 
political racial prejudice, to its present splendid success. Before such a 
man, I remove my hat and say with Flaccus: ^'Serus in coelum redeas." 

As to the present, I turn with satisfaction to the body of noble men 
and women who constitute its corps of instructors, co-operating in harmony 
with the gifted president, whose unwearied labors, supplemented by those 
of his honored wife, have been happily instrumental in obtaining from 
benevolent donors the magnificent gifts which have caused these noble 
structures around us to lift their heads to the glad sunlight, and the pure 
waters of the mountain springs to flow down to the inhabitants of this 
beautiful village. President Frost has been faithful to all interests, time 
has shown the wisdom of his policies, and his satisfaction in his life work 
should grow stronger day by day. 

For the future of the college I have to say that the hostile legislation 
of the last General Assembly of Kentucky will be rectified by the courts, 
as I hope and believe. But if it shall fall otherwise, and this college shall 
be forced to become, for an indefinite period, an institution exclusively for 
the education of young men and women of the white race, let us remember 
that it will still prosper. It will gather ever increased numbers of students 
in the mountains and the lowlands, teaching forever that which is true, just 
and righteous, and extending its influence through the entire mountain 
region. 

Nor in the accomplishment of such result will injustice be shown to the 
negro race. Whatever portion of the properties, good will and fame of the 
college is properly theirs, they may be assured will be settled upon them 
v/ithout stint and without litigation. The trustees will watch their interests, 
and somewhere, somehow, will provide that, not afar off, some new Fisk 
or Hampton or Tuskegee Shall be founded, where the colored youth of 
Kentucky shall be prepared for their share in the conflicts and triumphs of 
life. 

But, going back to the immediate purpose before us, let me urge that 
in this library we may see preserved all the memorials that can be had 
of our State and county history. Many incidents have occurred to darken 
the fame of the Commonwealth, but a vast deal to make its history glori- 
ous; orators like Clay, Crittenden, Marshall and Caperton have spoken 
for Kentucky; divines like Breckinridge, Dudley, Kavanaugh and Spalding 
have prayed in her behalf. Poets like Prentice, Mrs. Wilby and O'Hara 
have sung her praises. Great judges, like Boyle and Robertson and 
Goodloe, on the State bench, and Miller and Todd and Trimble and Harlan, 
in the Supreme Court of the United States, have swelled her renown; 
soldiers like Adair and Johnson and McKee have led her sons to victorious 
battle. In the forests of Kentucky, Audubon found the materials for his 
great books on the "Birds of America," and, in our own day, authors like 
John Fox and James Lane Allen have introduced to the audiences of the 
world the varied characteristics of our mountain clans and our haughty 
Bluegrass aristocrats; and let it not be forgotten that, ninety-three years 
ago, Joseph Buchanan published in our county town of Richmond his 
^'Philosophy of Human Nature." 

Madison county, without boasting, we can say, is a great county in ter- 
ritory, in wealth, and supremely great in historic events from the age of 



430 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

Boone and his fellow pioneers. In the war of 1812 with England, of 1846 
with Mexico, she furnished her full quota of soldiers. In the Civil War 
between the States, she furnished both armies large numbers of her sons, 
many of whom now rest "under the sod and the dew waiting the judgment 
day." 

Abroad in many States colonies of emigrants from Madison have gone, 
many to shed luster on the land of their birth, and always to retain love 
for their old Kentucky home. 

The posterity of those pioneers who remain here can rejoice to have 
seen slavery abolished, the general civilization advanced, the Bible in every 
dwelling, and the earth, under genial skies, made more beautiful and abund- 
ant in yielding sustenances and luxuries to the tillers of the ground. 

May the time hasten when feuds, lawlessness and moonshine whisky, 
which disgrace the hills, and graft and greed and redlight saloons and stolen 
elections, which defame our cities, shall disappear and our State become 
in all its borders what Fee, Rogers and Cassius M. Clay labored to make 
it and what her illustrious son, the inspired apostle of freedom, Abraham 
IJncoln, sought for the whole country. Thus shall she become: "An 
opening world diviner than the soul of man has yet been gifted to imagine." 



JAMES BENNETT McCREARY. 

[James Bennett McCreary, Lawyer, Governor, United States Senator, 
was born in Madison county, Kentucky, July 8, 1838; graduate of Centre 
College, Kentucky, 1857; in law, Cumberland University, Tennessee, 1859; 
served in the Confederate Army, .1862-65, as Major and Lieutenant-Colonel of 
Cavalry, under Morgan and Breckinridge; Delegate National Democratic Con- 
vention, 1868; Member Kentucky House of Representatives, 1869-73 (Speaker 
1871-73); Governor of Kentucky, 1875-79; Delegate to International Monetary 
Conference, Brussels, 1891; Member of Congress, 1885-97; United States 
Senator, 1903-09.] 

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF UNITED STATES SENATOR JAMES B. 

BECK. 

Extracts from memorial addresis delivered in the United States House 
of Representatives September 13, 1890, on the life and character of United 
States Senator James B. Beck, of Kentucky. 

Mr. Speaker: 

A great statesman, an eminent citizen, is dead. He sleeps now in peace 
and honor in the bosom of the State he loved so devotedly and served 
so faithfully. The history of his splendid public services and his noble 
personal traits will be preserved as long as our republic lasts. 

James B. Beck was bom in Dumfrieshire, Scotland, on the 13th day 
of February, 1822. He seemed to imbibe from the healthful atmosphere 
and lofty mountains around his home vigor of mind and body, while the 
sunny scenes, singing brooks and lovely lakes of this section helped to 
bless him with a happy, affectionate disposition. The historical glories 
of Dumfries, the fame of her Douglases, Bruces, Kirkpatricks, and also 
of Robert Bums, who resided here for a few years, impressed him and 
stimulated his energies and aroused his ambition for the accomplishment 
of the wonderful results which crowned his eflforts in after years. 

When he was sixteen years of age, he bade farewell to bonny Scotland 
and joined his father, who had emigrated to America in 1825, and who 
became a prosperous farmer in Wyoming county. New York. A few years 
proved to young Beck that farming was not his vocation, and he determined 
to devote himself to intellectual efforts. With a prescience that was both 
remarkable and accurate, he selected Lexington, Ky., as the arena of his 
life contest — the home of his happiness and success. 

This noble Scot knew what he could do. He knew his birthright. He 
felt the glow of his superior intellect, the strength of his will power, the 
fire of his ambition, the purity of his character, the splendid equipments 
with which God had blessed him, and he disdained to seek an easy, obscure 
place, but, with the courage of his convictions and with "lance at rest and 
visor down," at twenty-one years of age, he appeared at Lexington, Ky., 
where Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, the Breckinridges, Thomas Mar- 
shall and a host of others had already won national fame. Undaunted, 
undiscouraged and unknown, with no friends or relatives, and with 
no fortune save the health and strength and mind with which God had 
blessed him, he began a contest that was crowned with almost every 
triumph which grateful and admiring people could bestow, and which 



432 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

splendidly illustrated the opportunities of true manhood in America and 
the outcome and possibilities of all men under the generous influences of 
our free institutions, no matter where born. . . . 

He never forgot Scotland, but always spoke with affection and tender- 
ness of his dear native land. The following was one of his favorite 
quotations: 

"Land of brown heath and shaggy wood; 
Land of the mountain and the flood; 
Land of my sires, what mortal hand 
Can e'er untie the filial band 
That knits me to thy rugged strand?" 

He loved his adopted country with an unchanging affection. In every 
pulsation of his heart, he was an American, devoted to popular rights, 
individual freedom and self-government and proud of the glory and watch- 
ful of the honor of the land wherein he had been welcomed and honored 
and to which he had dedicated his life. 

He was the faithful friend and champion of the people. No man ever 
had better opportunities than he for knowing and understanding them. He 
came from the ranks of the people, and he loved to be close to them, and 
he had an abiding confidence in the integrity and patriotism of the masses. 
Like Ben Adhem, he would say: 

"Write me as one that loves his fellow men." 

He was honest and candid and fair in all the walks of life. In his whole 
career, no breath of suspicion ever assailed his integrity or dimmed the 
brightness of his honor, and whether we view him as citizen, lawyer 
or congressman, we see the impress of his splendid mind and the luster of 
his honest, noble manhood. 

As a husband and father, he was loving, faithful and tender. His home 
was the place of his greatest happiness. He loved his children, and he 
warmly appreciated the unchanging love and devotion of his noble wife, 
who preceded him to the grave but a few years ago. 

Mr. Speaker, ''in the midst of life we are in death." On the 3d day 
of May last, when the spring flowers were blooming and the evening 
zephyrs were whispering words of hope and encouragement and all nature 
was redolent and glorious with God's blessings. Senator Beck died. In a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, with his harness one, and the effulgence 
of his intellect and the sunshine of his disposition and the purity of his 
patriotism unimpaired, death claimed him and he went from the heights 
cf earthly honors to the realms of immortality. We will miss him in the 
councils of the nation ; we will miss him in the State of his adoption, where 
he was loved and respected so sincerely; we will miss him as a friend 
and as a colaborer in public affairs. In his life and achievements, we have 
a grand example to strengthen manhood and encourage youth. In his 
death, we mourn the loss of a great arid good man. 



WILLIAM GOEBEL 

[William Goebel, Lawyer, Statesman, was born in Sullivan County, Pa., 
January 4, 1856; son of William and Augusta (Greenclay) Goebel, natives of 
Hanover, Germany, who emigrated to America in early life, and marrying at 
Scranton, Pa., siettled in Sullivan County, but subsequently removed to Cov- 
ington, Ky. The father was a Union soldier during the Civil War and was 
twice wounded at Antietam. Became a law student in the office of ex-Gov- 
ernor John W. Stevenson; graduated at the Cincinnati Law School, and 
after a term at Kenyon College, became a partner of former Governor John 
W. Stevenson, which continued until the death of the latter; in 188G, at the 
age of thirty, he was chosen State Senator; he had no sooner become a mem- 
ber of the Legislature than he began championing the cause of the people, 
introducing many bills for their welfare; he was nominated for Governor 
at the Music Hall Convention, Louisville, Ky., June 27, 1899; after the elec- 
tion Mr. Goebel and his Republican opponent claimed the victory: a con- 
test was made before the Legislature, and the latter in joint session on Jan- 
uary 30th declared Mr. Goebel Governor of Kentucky. He was assassinated 
on the same day. As he died he whispered: "Tell my friends to be brave 
and fearless and loyal to the great common people."] 

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ITS RELATION TO THE TRUSTS. 

—THE KENTUCKY ELECTION LAW.— THE 

SCHOOL BOOK TRUST. 

Exti-act from speech delivered at a Democratic meeting at Mayfield, Ky,, 
August 12, 1899. 

Fellow Citizens: 

. . . The Democratic platform pledges the party to renewed efforts 
to suppress the trusts. It declares in favor of an amendment to the anti- 
trust statute now on the statute books making non-enforcible any contract 
made by any trust, or any member of any trust, with a view to fix or 
regulate prices or control production. In other words, no trusts, and no 
members of any trust or combination, shall 5e permitted to recover in the 
courts of the Commonwealth the price of any article that is the product 
of any trust. 

The trust is among the greatest of the evils of the time. Trusts are 
formed and operated through corporations. The corporation is a creature 
of the Government. Theoretically all corporations are created for the 
public good. When they abuse their privileges and menace the public 
welfare, laws should be enacted to prevent the abuses or to revoke the 
privileges abused. 

The tendency of the trusts of this day is to produce a condition like 
that which was produced by what was known as the feudal system in 
Europe four hundred and five hundred years ago. Our histories teach 
us that in that time and under that system nearly all wealth, which con- 
sisted then largely in land, was o>wned by a select class known as the 
nobility. The great body of the people were tenants and servitors upon 
the land, many passing with the land like the cattle upon it. With the 
development of constitutional liberty, the feudal system disappeared. The 
trust of this day tends to impoverishment of the many to enrich the 
few. It means corruption of government, the purchase of special privileges, 

27 



484 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE. 

and use of the power thus acquired to plunder the masses of the people. 
It enables its operators to control both production and consumption. It 
robs producer, consumer and employe alike. It means what the concen- 
tration of great wealth in the hands of the few has meant in all ages and 
in all countries — the making of mere dependents of the great body of 
people, depriving them of all hope of progress or independence. It is 
founded in heartless greed and is at war with fundamental principles of 
republican institutions and the dearest rights of mankind. Republican 
government can not co-exist with complete domination of the trusts. Car- 
ried to its logical conclusion, the trust is more destructive of individual 
independence than a monarchical form of government. Either the people 
must control the trusts or the trusts will rule the people. 

The chief means through which trusts are established and maintained 
are the single gold standard and a high protective tariff. The Democratic 
party is, and has always been, unalterably opposed to both ; the Republican 
is responsible for both. 

The so-called Sherman anti-trust law enacted by Congress contained 
a section declaring that no proceeding shall be instituted under it except 
upon the direction of the United States district attorney for the district 
in which the proceeding is brought or upon the direction of the attorney- 
general of the United States. No grand jury can act independently under 
that law. The law has been a dead letter ever since its enactment. It 
never was intended to be enforced, and never will be by a Republican 
administration. 

Mr. Attorney-General Griggs has publicly declared his reason for his 
failure to enforce the Federal anti-trust statute to be that the Federal 
Government can not suppress them, and that the trust question is one that 
must be dealt with by the States themselves. 

At the last session of the Kentucky General Assembly, the Democratic 
majority of the House of Representatives passed an anti-trust bill, oflfered by 
Mr. Bradbum, of Bowling Green, which, in my judgment, would have 
proved eflfective to crush* the operations of the trusts in this State. In 
both the House of Representatives and Senate, every Republican vote was 
cast against this bill. It failed of passage in the Senate solely because 
there two members elected as Democrats joined with the entire Republican 
membership of that body in voting against it. Notwithstanding this record 
of the Republican party in both nation and State, the Republican platform 
of Kentucky declares: "We pledge the Republican party to the enactment 
of all such laws as may be necessary to prevent trusts, pools," &c. The 
Republican party has become merely the political agent of the money power 
and the trusts. It holds power now and hopes to hold power in the future, 
solely as the result of the use of immense corruption funds contributed 
by the money power and the trusts, and it uses the power of government 
chiefly to repay the contributors of those corruption funds. It exalts 
money, the servant ; it debases man, the master. 

The growth of trusts and the policies of the Republican party forcibly 
recall the language of the great men of that party. In a message to 
Congress in 1861, Abraham Lincoln said this: "Monarchy itself is some- 
times hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people." In 
my present position, I could scarcely be justified were I to omit raising 
a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. It is not 
needed or fitting here that a general argument should be made in favor 
of popular institutions, but there is one point with its connection not so 



WILLIAM GOEBEL. 486 

hackneyed as most others to which I ask a brief attention. It is to the 
effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor in the 
structure of government. It is assumed that labor is available only in 
connection with capital, that nobody labors unless somebody else owning 
capital, somehow, by the use of it, induces him to labor. Labor is prior 
to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could 
have never existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior 
of capital and deserves much the higher consideration. 

It is only through the party of Jefferson and Jackson that this nation 
can be saved from complete subjection to the money power and the 
trusts. ... 

THE BLrBCTION LAW. 

The Democratic platform approves of, and the Republican platform 
demands the repeal 'of, the statute amending the election law enacted by 
the last General Assembly. The gist of the statute is that it takes from 
the county judges and confers upon three commissioners in each county 
the power to appoint each year the precinct election officers that are to 
conduct elections, the county commissioners being appointed by a State 
board of three commissioners chosen by the General Assembly. 

Many misrepresentations were uttered and published about this law. 
It was asserted that no penalty for offenses committed by election officers 
was provided by the new law, and consequently there was no law providing 
punishment for such offenses. But in the suit to test the validity of the 
law, the appellate court adjudged, as the advocates of the law had con- 
tended, that the penalties provided by the ori^nal secret ballot election 
law remained in force and were applicable to every wrong done after 
enactment of the new law. It was claimed that because the new statute 
did not provide for appeals to the courts from decisions of election-contest 
boards in election contests, therefore that right was destroyed. But the 
court of appeals decided, as the Democrats contended, that the right of 
appeal to the courts remained unaffected in every case in which there was 
such right before the new law was enacted. 

The Republican platform declares that the law commits broad power 
to irresponsible commissioners not chosen by or accountable to the people 
for their acts. To whom is a county judge in any of the mountain coun- 
ties having large Republican majorities responsible ? And what would 
such a judge care for criticism because he had not, in appointing election 
olffcers, divided them among the political parties? Under the old law, 
the action of the county Judge in appointing election officers could not be 
reviewed, nor could he be removed from office, nor be in any wise punished 
for disregarding the law governing the appointment of election officers. 
There can scarcely be imagined a more irresponsible power than that 
conferred by the old law upon the county judge. 

But the new law empowers the State commissioners to remove from 
office at any time any county commissioner, so that whenever any county 
commissioner violates the law, there is an immediate remedy by bringing 
the matter to the attention of the State board. 

It was said this law was without precedent, but in Ohio the Republican 
party has for years had in operation a law which vests in one man, the 
Secretary of State, the power to appoint county election commissioners 
for all counties in tHe State save those containing the large Republican 



486 KENTUCKY ELOQUENCE, 

cities, and in those excepted counties, which usually go Republican even 
when the State goes Democratic, the power to appoint the election com- 
missioners is vested in the mayors. The Republican press of Ohio, of 
course, continues to denounce the infamous Kentucky election law. 

In Virginia, the home of Jefferson, the father of the Democratic party, 
the General Assembly at every session, by joint resolution, appointed a 
board of three election commissioners for every county in the Common- 
wealth, who in turn appoint the registration and election officers. Ma- 
honeism has given the people of Virginia a proper appreciation of the 
importance of this subject, and they have therefore placed it upon the same 
plane with the highest function of government — ^the exercise of the sov- 
ereign legislative power. 

In Tennessee, the home of Jackson, than whom there was no greater 
Democrat, nor truer man, the governor appoints annually three election 
commissioners for each county who, in turn, appoint the election officers. 

TJie best test of any law is in its practical operation. In November of 
last year, we had an election under this law. It is conceded that that 
election was as fairly conducted as any elecfion ever held in the Common- 
wealth. Two contests for seats in Congress grew out of that election, 
both contests being made by the Republican candidates, but in neither 
case was there any claim of wrong under or by reason of this law. Judge 
Jones, the Republican candidate for judge of the court of appeals last 
year, made opposition to this law the basis of his canvass. He was de- 
feated. Neither he nor any one else has even pretended that wrong of 
any kind contributed to the result. This is a complete answer to every 
objection that has been made to this law. . . . 

SCHOOL BOOKS. 

The people of Kentucky pay annually many millions of dollars to 
the railway corporations. The present state of the law leaves it within the 
power of railroad managers, by means of extortion and discrimination, to 
destroy the business of some communities and persons and to build up that 
of others at will. No such uncontrolled power should reside anywhere 
in a free government. 

The Democratic platform favors, and the Republican platform opposes, 
the enactment of a law reducing the price of school books used in the 
common schools of the State. At the last session, there was passed by thf 
House of Representatives a bill upon this subject, offered by Mr. Chinn, of 
Mercer county. This bill fixed a maximum of prices for school books, on 
an average, one-third less than the prices now fixed by the school book 
trust, but the maximum was still 10 per cent, above the average maximum 
price fixed by a similar law that has been in successful operation in Indiana 
for ten years. Fn the House of Representatives and the Senate, every 
Republican vote was cast against this bill. 

What good reason can there be why the same school books, manufac- 
tured and sold by the same corporation, should in Kentucky cost 43 
per cent., or nearly one-half, more than they cost in the adjoining State 
of Indiana ? Such is the fact, solely because the law permits it, and because 
the representatives of the Republican party in the last General Assembly 
did the bidding of the lobbyists of the book trust. By the vote of the 
entire Republican membership of both Houses of the General Assembly, 
at its last session, there was prevented the passage of a law reducing to 



WILLIAM OOEBEL. 437 

a just charge the prices of school books as now fixed by the book trust, 
and by a like vote of the Republicans of the GeneVal Assembly there was 
prevented the enactment of a proper and effective anti-trust law. If there 
be anything that ought to be made as nearly free as air as the law can 
make it, it is the opportunity of every child in the Commonwealth to get 
an education. . . . 

IMPERIALISM. 

The Democracy of Kentucky affirms that it is as true now as it was 
when Jefferson wrote it into the Declaration of Independence, that govern- 
ments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and 
that this applies to all peoples everywhere. They affirm that this nation 
should no more have a British colonial policy than it should have a British 
financial policy; that what would have been "criminal aggression" in 
Cuba is "criminal aggression" in the Philippines, and, therefore, they de- 
nounce the policy of the present national administration in these islands. 
The only redeeming features of the Republican policy of imperialism are 
the bravery and heroism of the American soldiers. 



IKenluclvY 43oet5 

"past anb "presents 



POETRY. 



Poetry has, time out of mind, been a companion of eloquence. They 
are twin sisters and were so regarded by the ancients. The Romans, who 
were so convinced of this kindred relation, placed poetry and eloquence in 
charge of one of their Muses. Calliope, one of their Muses, was the goddess 
of eloquence and heroic poetry. They would not have placed these two 
fine arts in the care of a single goddess unless they had considered them 
so allied to one another as to be almost equivalent to the same. To the 
selections of specimens of Kentucky eloquence which we have made, it 
seems fitting, therefore, to add specimens of Kentucky poetry. 

Kentucky, moreover, while having a fame world-wide for the eloquence 
of her citizens, has also the honor of producing some fine poems. In a 
work of this kind, of course, it would be impossible to give specimens from 
all Kentucky's poets, but we think there will be found in the collection which 
follows some poems worthy of any people. The poem, entitled 'The 
Bivouac of the Dead," by Theodore O'Hara, ranks with the celebrated 
l3Tics of the world. It has come do'wn the pathway of time in company 
with 'T'Allegro," by Milton, ''Alexander's Feast," by Dryden, "The Church- 
yard Elegy," by Gray, "The Burial of Sir John Moore," by Wolfe, 'The 
Isles of Greece," by Byron, "The Psalm of Life," by Longfellow, "Thana- 
topsis," by Bryant, and others that might be named, which have been the 
admiration of the civilized world. Others might be named in the Kentucky 
collection of almost equal merits, but less famous because of local repute 
only. If our selections of some of the lyrics of Kentucky poets shall bring 
them to the notice of persons outside of the local sphere, we shall accom- 
plish all we desire. It is only necessary to add that some of the specimens 
which follow are taken from poets who were not born in Kentucky, but who 
came here at an early age and wrote their poems and made their fame in 
Kentucky, which, it would seem, entitled them to a place among Kentucky 
poets. 



440 KENTUCKY POETS. 



WILLIAM ORLANDO BUTLER. 



[William Orlando Butler was born in Jessamine county, Kentucky, April 
19, 1791; died at Carrollton, Ky., on the 6tli day of August, 1880. He was 
a graduate of Transylvania University in 1812 and, immediately after leaving 
college, volunteered as a private in the war between the United States and 
Great Britain. In this war, he rose by meritorious service from a private 
to the rank of major. In the war with Mexico, he again volunteered and 
rose from the rank of major to that of major-general and occupied the place 
of General Scott as commander-in-chief of the American army at the close 
of hostilities. Besides his high military reputation, he was a lawyer of 
marked ability and a literary man of broad culture. He was also a poet of 
no mean ability and produced a number of short poems which were much 
admired.] 

THE BOATMAN'S HORN. 

O, boatman ! wind that horn again, 

For never did the listening air 

Upon its lambent bosom bear 

So wild, so soft, SO' sweet a strain! 

What though thy notes are sad and few, 

By every simple boatman blown. 

Yet is each pulse to Nature true, 

And melody in every tone. 

How oft, in boyhood's joyous day, 

Unmindful of the lapsing hours 

Have loitered on my homeward way 

By wild Ohio's bank of flowers; 

While some lone boatman from the deck 

Poured his soft numbers to that tide. 

As if to charm from storm and wreck 

The boat where all his fortunes rise ! 

Delighted Nature drank the sound. 

Enchanted, Echo bore it round 

In whispers soft and softer still, 

From hill to plain and plain to hill, 

Till e'en the thoughtless frolic boy. 

Elate with hope and wild with joy. 

Who gamboled by the river's side, 

And sported by the fretting tide. 

Feels something new pervade his breast, 

Change his light steps, repress his jest, 

Bends o'er the flood his eager ear 

To catch the sounds far oflf, yet dear — 

Drinks the sweet draught, but knows not why 

The tear of rapture fills his eye. 

And can he now, to manhood grown. 

Tell why those notes, simple and lone, 

As on the ravished ear they fell, 

Bind every sense in magic spell? 



KENTUCKY POETS. 441 

There is a tide of feeling given 
To' all on earth, its fountain heaven, 
Beginning with the dewy flower, 
Just ope'd in Flora's vernal bower- 
Rising creation's orders through. 
With louder murmur, brighter hue — 
That tide is sympathy ! Its ebb and flow 
Gives life its hues, its joy and woe. 
Music, the master spirit that can move 
Its waves to war, or lull them into love, 
Can cheer the sinking sailor mid the wave, 
And bid the warrior on ! Nor fear the grave ; 
Inspire the fainting pilgrim on his road. 
And elevate his soul to claim his God ! 
Then, boatman, wind that horn again! 
Though much of sorrow mark its strain, 
Yet are its notes to sorrow dear ! 
What though they wake fond memory's tear ! 
Tears are sad memory's sacred feast, 
And rapture oft her chosen guest. 



JOSIE FRAZEE CAPPLEMAN. 

[Josie Frazee Cappleman is of Kentucky parentage, being the daughter 
-jf Joseph Frazee, of Mason county, Kentucky, and the great granddaughter 
of Joseph Doniphan, who taught the first school on Kentucky soil, in Fort 
Boonesboro, in the year 1779. Mrs. Cappleman began writing verse when 
a mere child. She graduated at Franklin College, Lancaster, Ky., and was 
awarded a gold medal for proficiency in both prose and poetical composition. 
Mrs. Cappleman has written some three or four hundred poems, which have 
been published in some of the leading papers and periodicals of the United 
States and have also appeared in one handsome volume, entitled "Heart 
Songs." Mrs. Cappleman is the widow of G. T. Cappleman, of Louisville, 
her present home being at Little Rock, Ark.] 

WHERE DO THE KISSES GROW? 

They leap from the soul of a baby 

And then all over it spread. 
From the white and pink of its toe-tips 

To the halo of gold on its head ; 
From the depths of its dainty dimples. 

From the roseate, laughter-turned lips. 
From the soft, shapely neck and shoulders 

To the tapering finger-tips. 



442 KENTUCKY P0ET8, 

They're hidden within every heart-fold, 

And cuddled down close to the core, 
And tho' they are evermore gathered, 

Still, I find there a thousand-fold more ; 
And each one seems softer and sweeter 

Than the one I found just before, 
Till I wonder if ever the sweetest 

Is taken from baby's vast store. 

So, daily I search for and seize them, 

And hourly I pluck a new prize, 
Sometimes from the whitest of foreheads, 

Sometimes from the brightest of eyes; 
Of all the fair sweets sent from heaven. 

These kisses, to me, are most sweet, 
A blessing they bring to my being 

As the holiest emotions there meet. 

And I whisper : "O angel-kissed baby. 

Do you feel — can you ever quite know 
Of the wonderful worth of these kisses 

That ever continue to grow? 
Of the wearisome woes that they soften. 

Of the heart cares they curtain from sight. 
Of their magic that soars thro' the sunshine 

And on thro' the knells of the night?" 

I hold that we're higher and better 

For every fresh kiss that we take. 
For every fond love token given — 

When given for sacred love's sake; 
For, if purity's planted in Earthdom, 

Then surely it springs from the soul 
Of that beautiful, angel-like being 

As its life-page begins to unroll. 

Then I'll gather them early and often. 

From the bright curly head to the toe, 
I can't rob the wee tot of its treasures. 

For still they continue to grow, 
And in long after years fondest memory 

E'en backward forever will flow 
To that bonny-eyed babe of the by-gone. 

Whose kisses no longer may grow. 



KENTUCKY POETS. 448 



MADISON CAWEIN. 

[Madison Cawein was born in Louisville, Kentucky, March 23, 1865. He 
began writing verses when a mere child and has kept it up until he has 
become the most voluminous poet in Kentucky. He has now published no 
less than twenty volumes, some of which are octavos of considerable thick- 
ness. He is now understood to be arranging his poems for an uniform 
edition, which will be awaited with anxiety by his numerous admirers at 
home and abroad. The following poem from his volume of 1901, entitled 
"Weeds by the Wall," presents a fair specimen of his poetry.] 

A TWILIGHT MOTH. 

Dusk is thy dawn; when Eve puts on her state 

Of g-old and purple in the marbled west, 
Thou comest forth like some embodied trait, 

Or dim conceit, a lily-bud confessed; 
Or, of a rose, the visible wish ; that, white. 
Goes softly messengering through the night. 

Whom each expectant flower makes its guest. 

All day the primroses have thought of thee, 
Their golden heads close-haremed from the heat ; 

All day the mystic moonflowers silkenly 
Veiled snowy faces — ^that no bee might greet 

Or butterfly that, weighed with pollen, passed — 

Keeping Sultana charms for thee, at last. 
Their lord, who comest to salute each sweet. 

Cool-throated flowers that avoid the day's 

Too fervid kisses; every bud that drinks 
The tipsy dew and to the starlight plays 

Nocturnes of fragrance; thy winged shadow links 
In bonds of secret brotherhood and faith; 
O bearer of their order's shibboleth. 

Like some pale symbol fluttering o'er these pinks. 

What dost thou whisper in the balsam's ear 
That sets it blushing, or the hollyhock's — 

A syllabled silence that no man may hear — 
As dreamily upon its stem it rocks? 

What spell dost bear from listening plant to plant. 

Like some white witch, some ghostly ministrant. 
Some spectre of some perished flower of phlox ? 

O voyager of that universe which lies 
Between the four walls of this garden fair — 

Whose constellations are the fireflies 
That wheel their instant courses everywhere — 

'Mid fairy firmaments wherein one sees 

Miniic Bootes and the Pleiades, 
Thou steerest like some fairy ship-of-air. 



444 KENTUCKY POETS. 

Gnome-wrought of moonbeam fluff and gossamer, 
Silent as scent, perhaps thou chariotest 

Mab or King Oberon; or, haply, her 
His queen, Titania, on some midnight quest — 

O, for the herb, the magic euphrasy. 

That should unmask thee to mine eyes, ah, me ! 
And all that world at which my soul hath guessed ! 



FORTUNATUS COSBY, JR. 

[Fortunatus Cosby, Jr., was a native of Kentucky, where he was born 
May 2, 1802; died June 16, 1861. He was the son of Judge Fortunatus Cosby 
and was a graduate of Yale CoUege. He was a lawyer by profession, but 
never engaged steadily in the practice. His tastes were decidedly literary, 
and his time was devoted to reading and writing. He was for some years 
la the Treasury Department at Washington and Consul at Geneva, Switzer- 
land, where his duties gave him leisure for literary pursuits. He wrote many 
poems which were published in the different papers with which he was, 
from time to time, editorially connected.] 

FIRESIDE FANCIES. 

By the dim and fitful firelight 

Musing all alone. 
Memories of old companions 

Dead or strangers grown ; 
Books that we had read together, 
Rambles in sweet summer weather, 
Thoughts released from earthly tether — 

Fancy made my own. 

In my cushioned arm-chair sitting 

Far into the night, 
Sleep, with laden wing extinguished 

All the flickering light 
But the thoughts that soothes me waking 
Care and grief and pain forsaking, 
Still the self -same path were taking — 

Pilgrims, still in sight. 

Indistinct and shadowy phantoms 

Of the sacred dead, 
Absent faces bending fondly 

O'er my drooping head, 
In my dreams were woven quaintly. 
Dim at first, but calm and saintly 
As the stars that glimmer faintly 

From their mystic bed. 



KENTUCKY POETS. 446 

Presently a lustrous brightness 

Eye could scarce behold, 
Gave to my enchanted vision, 

Looks no longer cold. 
Features that no colds encumber. 
Forms refreshed by sweetest slumber. 
And, of all that blessed number, 

Only one was old. 

Graceful were they as the willow 

By the zephyr stirred ! 
Bright as childhood when expecting 

An approving word! 
Fair as when from earth they faded, 
Ere the burnished brown was shaded, 
Or, the hair with silver braided, 

Or lament was heard. 

Roundabout in silence moving 

Slowly to and fro, 
Life-like as I knew and loved them 

In their spring-time glow; 
Beaming with a loving luster, 
Close and closer still they cluster 
Round my chair that radiant m.uster, 

Just as long ago. 

Once, the aged, breathing comfort 

O'er my fainting cheek. 
Whispered words of precious meaning 

Only she could speak ; 
Scarce could I my rapture smother, 
For I knew it was my mother, 
And to me there was no other 

Saint-like and so meek. 

Then the pent-up fount of feeling 

Stirred its inmost deep — 
Brimming o'er its frozen surface 

From its guarded keep, 
On my heart its drop descending. 
And for one glad moment lending. 
Dreams of joy's ecstatic blending, 

Blessed my charmed sleep. 

Bright and brighter grew the vision 

With each gathering tear. 
Till the past was all before me 

In its radiance clear; 
And again we read at even — 
Hoped beneath the summer heaven, 
Hopes that had no bitter leaven, 

No disturbing fear. 



44« KENTUCKY POETS. 

All so real seemed each presence, 
That one word I spoke — 
Only one of old endearment, 

That dead silence broke, 
But the angels who were keeping 
Stillest watch while 1 was sleeping. 
Left me o'er the embers weeping — 
Fled when I awoke. 

But, as ivy clings the greenest 
On abandoned walls; 
And as echo lingers sweetest 

In deserted halls: 

Thus the sunlight that we borrow 

From the past to gild our sorrow. 

On the dark and dreaded morrow 

Like a blessing falls. 



INGRAM CROCKETT. 



[Ingram Crockett is a native of Henderson, Kentucky, where he was 
born in 1856. He is the son of John W. Crockett, who was famous as an 
orator. He has been successful as a contributor of verse to the newspapers 
and magazines of his day. He had not to seek a publisher, but his poems 
were always sought and admired. The following selection, though some- 
what mythical in the determination of the exact subject, will be accepted as 
a fine specimen.] 

AT YULE-TIDE. 
I. 

Now upon the Soul's broad hearthstone lay !He crimson brands for lighting. 
With the charm of touch and whisper wake the bright warm-hearted flame 
Till it, rising, kisses softly all the arches bending o'er it, 
Till the winged sparks go singing through the night Love's holy name. 

II. 

Lusty mistletoe be bringing, boughs of cedar, wreaths of holly, 
To each heart a cup of laughter touched by gracious vestal lips. 
Now the disc of every sorrow joy shall circle with a halo, 
As the sun hangs golden banners round the shadow of eclipse. 

in. 

Long within the soul, God's temple, darkness, festooned, hung forbidding, 
Draped the windows, barred and leaden, draped the knarled and studded 

door; 
While, with fitful flare and flicker, danced the Yule-light, hollow-hearted 
As wild Superstition, bowing, dancing on the stained floor. 



KENTUCKY POET 8. 447 

IV. 



Long the angry sparks sang "Hatred !" Hate of brother unto brother ! 
Long the mistletoe was severed with sacrificial knife 
Sheathed oft within the bosom of a hapless, human victim, 
Telling of a hideous worship and the creed of life for life. 



But, at last, an oriel window set toward the hills of Morning, 
Where, with reverent brows uplifted, pray the mighty peaks of Hope, 
Thrilled with prescient thrills of glory as the Day-Star shone upon it, 
Thrilled as thrills a parent watcher 'neath a blessed horoscope. 

VL 

Sudden dust, blown quickly downward, fell the rotten folds of darkness; 
Through the oriel's veins, translucent, ran a ruby current mild ; 
Clusters there of roses blossomed, lilies swung their snowy censers 
O'er a mother and a manger and the sweet face of a child. 

VII. 

All the Temple was transfigured, and a silent benediction 

Fell on cedar, fell on holly, fell on pearl-strung mistletoe: 

"God," they murmured, and not Odin; '^Christ," they murmured, and not 

Balder, 
And awed Superstition, kneeling, heard forgiveness whispered low. 

VIII. 

Swung the door upon its hinges, and the angels of God's heaven 
Straightway came within the Temple singing songs of holy cheer; 
Sang they all of Jesus blessed, sang they of His peace eternal 
Spanning all the broken earth-clouds like an emerald rainbow clear. 

IX. 

Stay, sweet angels, ever sin^ng carols to the Lord and Saviour, 
Sing: "He oped the orient portals with a rosy, baby hand !" 
Sing: "He suffered more than martyr, marking earth with feet of sorrow 
While, behind Him, joys and blessings bourgeoned in the desert land !" 

Conclusion. 
Fide et amore. 



Lord, we stand upon the margin of that ocean stretching outward 
Far beyond the isles of Knowledge, far beyond the mount of Sight ; 
Only Love can hear its billows breaking on the shores Hereafter, 
Only Faith can see Thy heaven bathed in everlasting light. 

II. 

Then in this Thy dearest gift-time, when to us Thyself Thou gavest, 
Give us Faith and Love to guide us, teaching us of heaven and Thee; 
Lest we fall to idle talking with Doubt, walking close behind us. 
Lest we say, with him, "Hope never! All beyond is shoreless sea." 



448 KENTUCKY POETS 



GEORGE M. DAVIE. 

[George M. Davie was bom in Christian county, Kentucky, on the 16th 
of March, 1848, and died in Louisville, Ky., on the 22d of February, 1900. 
He went from the schools of his native county to Centre College, Kentucky, 
and finally to Princeton, New Jersey, where he was graduated in 1868. He 
then came to Louisville and entered the law department of the University 
of Louisville and got his license to practice law in 1870. He soon rose to 
distinction at the Louisville bar, where he finally took his stand among those 
at the head of the bar. Although a busy man with his practice, he found 
time to indulge his taste for literature and wrote for the papers and magazines 
in both prose and verse. He was very fond of the poetry of the Roman 
poet, Horace, and translated many of his odes into English verse. He also 
made a fine translation of the celebrated Dies Irae of the Middle Ages. Among 
his original poems may be mentioned his "Night in Venice," "The City of 
Gold," "A Yearn for the Romantic," "A Legal Idyl," and "The Crimson Foot." 
Mr. Davie was one of the founders of the Filson Club, in 1884, and when he 
died a memorial meeting was held in his behalf on the 5th of March, 1900, 
at which most of the prominent members delivered eulogies upon him, and 
the club passed complimentary resolutions embracing the leading features of 
his life. The following selection will afford a fair specimen of Mr. Davie's 
poetry.] 

THE CITY OF GOLD. 

Maddened with a thirst for gold, 
Men's hearts did, in times of old. 
Far across the sea and wold 

Mirage its shadow: 
And as faith makes heaven known, 
So, beyond a far-off zone, 
A city — all of gold — there shone. 

They called El Dorado. 

From the castled land of Spain, 
Many a bold knight with his train 
Far upon the Western main 

Chased that wild shadow: 
Where the hoarse tornado blows. 
Where the trackless forest grows. 
Wandering — where, no mortal knows — 

Sought they El Dorado. 

Warriors, of dark renown. 

Monks, with cross and shaven crown, 

Sailors, dyed by sunlight brown 

And by tornado; 
In life's frost, or in its bloom, 
Decked with flashing steel and plume, 
Heedless of an unknown doom. 

Sought that El Dorado. 



KENTUCKY POETS. 449 

Over the weird Circean seas, 
By the haunted Bermoothes, 
Past the flecked Carribees — 

Stormy Trinidado — 
Driven by the hurricane, 
Beaten by the tropic rain, 
Onward sped the dauntless train, 

Seeking El Dorado; 

Southward ever — till they find 
Even the sun seemed left behind ! 
On, with still undaunted mind. 

Sailed the armada — 
Past the coral reef and isle. 
Past the headland's misty pile, 
Past the forest's river-aisle. 

Sought they El Dorado. 

Where vast oceans lashed the sands 
Of far-oflf untrodden strands. 
Seeking still the golden lands. 

Chased they that shadow; 
Up the sluggish torrid streams. 
In whose depth the diamond gleams; 
To lands wild as fever dreams — 

Sought they El Dorado. 

Through dark fen and tangled brake, 
Where the vampire dwelt, and snake — 
While the vultures on their wake 

Flew as a shadow — 
With a still-unconquered eye, 
One by one, they fell to die : 
And the others passed them by, 

Seeking El Dorado. 

On, for many a weary league. 
On, through danger and fatigue; 
All became a phantom vague, 

And but a shadow : 
Gold was master, man was thrall; 
So a doom was on them all; 
Each knight's mantle was his pall — 

Seeking El Dorado. 

Dead, upon the tropic sand. 
Dead, where mighty forests stand ; 
Known no more in any land 

Save that of shadow: 
Their stark limbs the vultures tore; 
Pray that when their quest was o'er, 
And, on some far unknown shore. 

Found they El Dorado. 

28 



460 KENTUCKY POETS 



GEN. B. W. DUKE. 



[General Basil W. Duke, a native of Scott county, Kentucky, where he 
was born May 28, 1838, although a fine writer and speaker, is best known now, 
and will be hereafter, for his military deeds in the Civil War. He did not 
8l\^"ays, however, write prose, but often indulged in verse, even while raiding 
with Morgan over the country. The following poem will serve as an example 
of his style of writing.] 

SONG OF THE RAID. 

On the Cumberland's bosom 

The moonbeams are bright, 
And the path of the raiders 

Is plain by her light ; 
Across the broad riffle 
. And up the steep bank, 
The long, winding column 

Moves rank after rank. 

Chobus: 

Then h5! for the Bluegrass— 

And welcome the chance — 
No matter the danger 

That bfds us advance ; 
The odds must be heavy 

To turn or deter 
The lads who make war 

With the pistol and spur! 

We haunt the wild border, 

We ever are near. 
Giving hope to our friends 

And to enemies fear. 
We hold idle armies 

Here, guarding this soil. 
We snatch from swift battle 

Its glory and spoil. 

Through the woodland's deep shade. 

By the meadow' green side. 
Up hill and down valley 

We steadily ride; 
But hushed now the laughter 

And silent the song, 
As all night the squadrons 

Tramp swiftly along. 



KENTUCKY POETS. 461 

The advance guard is marching 

Away in the van, 
Bold leader the captain, 

Tried soldier each man. 
No challenge is passed 

When a foe they descry, 
But the charge comes as fast 

As the hail from the sky. 

By morn we see Glasgow, 

Columbia at noon, 
Then march on again 

'Neath the smiles of the moon. 
And at midnight on Lebanon 

Suddenly swoop down 
To flush the blue-jackets 

Who hold the good town. 

Leave Bardstown to westward. 

Our right pushes in 
The pickets to Danville 

With clatter and din ; 
Through Harrodsburg charging. 

Press hotly the chase, 
Till Frankfort shall witness 

The dust of the race. 

Let Louisville listen, 

And Lexingfon wait, 
We are lords of the heart 

Of the beautiful State. 
The best steeds on Elkhom 

We take as our right ; 
We must fight when he will, 

We must win when we fight. 

We reach merry Georgetown — 

There's risk in delay — 
But, whatever happen, 

We'll tarry one day; 
Then down the white pike 

Cynthiana shall hear 
The rifle's bold music, 

The rebel's wild cheer. 

But now we draw bridle. 

Our purpose is done; 
Our leader commands, 

And we turn with the sun ; 
And strong hearts are swelling. 

And eyes throb and bum. 
For many go southward 

Who'll never return. 



462 KENTUCKY POETS 

Chobus : 

Farewell to the Bluegrass, 

So sweet in my sight — 
To its pastures so green 

And its waters so bright; 
If it pass to the stranger, 

Be lost to the brave, 
I'll ask of my birthland 

Enough for a grave. 



REUBEN THOMAS DURRETT. 

[Reuben Thomas Durrett was born in Henry county, Kentucky, January 
22, 1824. He is a graduate of Brown University and received from that insti- 
tution the three degrees of A. B., A. M. and LL. D. Georgetown College and 
the University of Louisville also conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. 
Although a lawyer by profession, his taste led him to devote much time to 
literature. He has written many articles, principally of a historic character, 
for the newspapers and magazines, and, since his retirement from active 
practice, five volumes of his writings have been published by the Filson Club. 
While in Rome, Italy, spending the winter of 1855-6, he and several Americans 
there at the same time, went to the Coliseum to watch the old year out and 
the new year in. Each agreed to write something about the scene, and the 
following extract is from a classical poem in blank verse which Mr. Durrett 
wrote for the occasion.] 

THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW IN THE COLISEUM AT ROME. 

The noon of night 
Has come, and thoughts as strange as this wild scene 
Crowd on the mind. The Old Year and the New 
As gladiators seem in mortal strife 
Within the Coliseum's fated walls. 
A conflict more almighty was not when 
The arch fiend, with his hosts of fallen angels, 
In heaven's broad purlieu, met the sons of light, 
Led on to battle by Omnipotence ; 
Nor when the storied giants Ossa piled 
On Pelion to dethrone the Thunderer. 
The glad spectators of this scene are not 
The eighty thousand sons of Rome who filled 
These seats while Titus sat as arbiter. 
And with his festivals and hundred days 
Did dedicate to feats of strength and shows 
Of wickedness this amphitheater. 
Now goblins, ghosts, and spirits, forms divine. 
And shapes satanic fill the air and crowd 
These seats as numerous as the sands that bleach 
Old ocean's storm-lashed shore. Here Life and Death, 
Youth and Age, Disease and Health, War and Peace, 



KENTUCKY POETS. 463 

Famine, Pestilence and Mortality, 
The Past, the Present and the Future dark, 
With other forms as numerous as the stars, 
Together here seem congregated all. 
From every quarter of the universe. 
To see the noble gladiator die ; 
While old Eternity, enthroned above 
In Fate's dread chair, sits arbiter sublime 
And views the awful strife. 

The noon of night 
Impends. One moment more must pass, and then 
The Year that wears the diadem will fall. 
Forever fall into the changeless past. 
How pregnant is this moment with rapt thoughts! 
This moment! It doth to the future bind 
The past and make of them one boundless, vast, 
Sublime Eternity. It is that link. 
Without which in duration's endless chain 
All past, all future and the present time 
Were disconnected parts confounded worse 
Than dire Confusion's self. In its brief span 
Swift Memory waves her life-restoring wand 
And calls up from the past immortal thoughts 
Whose genesis was far before the date 
Of the Cloaca Maxima, and tomb 
Of Scipio. Events which filled long times 
And great discoveries in the realm of art 
And science, which the dragging centuries 
Had scarce made known, now flash like vivid dreams 
Across the mind. The changeless stars which saw 
Arcadian shepherds watch their flocks by night 
Upon yon Palatine, ere I^omulus 
Had founded there the citadel of Rome, 
Shine o'er us now. And yon same moon, that threw 
Her mellow beams upon the Pantheon, 
The shrine of all Rome's gods and goddesses, 
Two thousand years ago, rolls on unchanged 
Upon the silver chariot of the night. 
Yon deep blue sky, the pride of tropic climes, 
Looks on us with the same bright starry eyes 
That watched the City of the Seven Hills 
As from the work of Romulus it rose 
To majesty and grandeur ne'er surpassed. 
Yon Tiber winds his wonted course along 
The shores which once were clad with glory's pomp 
And bears his waters from the Appenines 
Into the midland sea just as he did 
When, centuries ago, Eneas came 
With all the gods had spared of fallen Troy 
And landed on his banks. All else how changed ! 
The Eternal City wears ephemeral hues. 



454 KENTUCKY P0ET8. 

The Caesar's palace, once the pride of Rome 

Remains a heap of ruins. The classic hills, 

Upon whose crests the famous city stood. 

Have crumbled down and scarcely seem to rise 

Above the rubbish which two thousand years 

Have piled around their base. The Forum lies 

Deep buried 'neath the waste of centuries. 

War, Famine, Pestilence and flood and flame 

Have swept over ancient Rome, and naught remains 

To tell where Glory dwelt, save mighty wrecks 

Which greet the eye like to immortal deaths. 

The gods who erst were worshipped here are gone, 

And crumbled into dust their gorgeous shrines, 

And borne away their comely busts of bronze 

And marble statues to adorn the halls 

Of those the sculptors deemed barbarians. 

Unto the memory of the Christian dead, 

Whom wild beasts tore and fire consumed to make 

A holiday for Roman merriment. 

This vast arena has been set apart 

And consecrated by His Holiness, 

And prayers ascend hence to the Triune God, 

Where Jove was throned and warrior gods displayed 

In men the showman's arts. 

That moment brief. 
So full of thought, is gone. The olden year 
Beneath his adversary lies. The Past 
Has claimed him as his spoil and bears him off, 
While Time proclaims Eternity's decree. 
And gives the empire of the universe 
Unto the glad New Year, the victor proud. 
No shout goes up to rend the air, as did 
Of old when victory was here proclaimed, 
And countless Latin and barbaric tongues 
Made the welkin ring with joy. The olden 
Year his given span of life has measured ; 
The winds have sung his solemn requiem. 
And Time, with one hand pointing forward to 
The future's dark and mystic canopy, 
The golden chronoscope which measures out 
The moments and the hours that multiply 
Themselves in days and years and centuries. 
And with the other reaching backward to 
The frowning past, the tablet and the style 
With which he makes the record of all things. 
Has noted all the Old Year's deeds of good 
Or bad upon Eternity's vast scroll 
That changes nevermore. 



KENTUCKY POETS. 456 



WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER. 

[William D. Gallagher was a native of Philadelphia, where he was born 
August 21, 1808, died near Louisville, Kentucky, June 28, 1894. At an 
early age, he came West and, after a sojourn in Ohio, he came to Ken- 
tucky, where the rest of his days were spent. He wrote many poems and 
published two small volumes and one larger one at different times. The 
characteristic of his x>oems was purity of style and purity of matter. In 
all the wide range of his prose and poetry, not one vulgar sentence or one 
immoral thought can be found.] 

THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST. 

The mothers of our Forest-land ! 

Stout-hearted dames were they; 
With nerve to wield the battle-brand, 

And join the border fray. 
Our rough land had no braver 

In its day of blood and strife — 
Aye, ready for severest toil, 

Aye, free to peril life. 

The mothers of our Forest-land ! 

On old Kentucky's soil, 
How shared they, with each dauntless band, 

War's tempest and life's toil ! 
They shrank not from the foeman, 

They quailed not in the fight, 
But cheered their husbands through the day, 

And soothed them through the night. 

The mothers of our Forest-land ! 

Their bosoms pillow'd men; 
And proud were they to have to stand 

In hummock, fort, or glen; 
To load the sure old rifle — 

To run the leaden ball — 
To watch a battering husband's place, 

And fill it should he fall. 

The mothers of our Forest-land ! 

Such were their daily deeds ; 
Their monument — where does it stand — 

Their epitaph — who reads? 
No braver dames had Sparta — 

No nobler matrons Rome — 
Yet who or lauds or honors them, 

Ev'n in their own green home? 

The mothers of our Forest-land ! 

They sleep in unknown graves; 
And had they borne and nursed a band 

Of ingrates, or of slaves. 



466 KENTUCKY POETS. 

They had not been neglected more. 

But their graves shall yet be found, 
And their monuments dot here and there 

"The Dark and Bloody Ground!" 



JOEL T. HART. 



[Joel T. Hart was born in Clark county, Kentucky, in 1810, and died in 
Florence, Italy, in 1877. He was most distinguished as a sculptor, and has 
left in marble some works which are immortal. His greatest work was 
possibly his "Woman Triumphant," which perished in the fire which destroyed 
the court house at Lexington, Ky., where it had been placed. His statue of 
Henry Clay, his Morning Glory and other works, however, will guard his 
fame down to latest times. In the last years of his life, he took into his 
head that he was a poet as well as sculptor and wrote a number of verses 
of sufficient merit for any one except such an artist in marble. The following 
may serve as a specimen.] 

INVOCATION TO THE COLISEUM AT ROME. 

A thousand years ago, and thou 

Wert then a thousand old; 
The mightiest wreck of splendor now 

Time lingers to behold, 
And, like thy victims, torn and pale. 
And falling, thou wouldst tell thy tale. 

Thy subject realms from zone to zone, 

Their trophies sent each sea 
The suppliant from the shrine, the throne 

Their tributes borne to thee. 
While Parian throngs in forms divine, 
And gods were ministers of thine. 

The startling jar, the unbolted cage. 

The hosts' suspended breath. 
The Nubian monarch starved to rage. 

The bugle's note of death. 
The murdered victim, now again 
Another, yet another slain ! 

The bound, the shriek, the shout, the groan. 

The bloody blade and bare, 
The gored and mangled wretches strewn 

That stenched the troubled air, 
To glut the eye and nostrils wide 
With cry, "Let every lance be dyed !" 



KENTUCKY POET 8. 467 

A hundred bondmen, by decree 

To basely fight or fall, 
Strode unto death to make the ''free" 

A Roman carnival 
For savage natures set on flame. 
The hell of torture and of shame. 

Amid the shouts of triumph, thou 

Didst mark the victor's pride; 
And beauty bared her laureled brow 

With Caesar at her side. 
And him, the Dacian wretch, no more 
To clasp his loves, but gasp in gore. 

Now, through the ruins, ivy bound. 

There stalks no wailing ghost ; 
Through all thy thousand aisles no sound 

Comes from thy buried host; 
But silent all, and silence dread 
And desolation reign instead. 

Yet, in thy desolation, thou 

Hast seen their glories fade ; 
And, one by one, their temple bow, 

Their shrines on ruins laid ; 
And those that worshipped with the clay 
Have formed their idols, pass away. 

And Time hath writ upon thy brow 

Pride and ambition's fall; 
Wealth, pageant, glory, empire, thou 

Hast reared and buried all ; 
In stern decay, sublime and lone, 
Art now a moralist in stone. 



468 KENTUCKY POETS 



WILL S. HAYS. 



[Will S. Hays was bom in Louisville, Ky., July 19, 1837. He has, for 
almost half a century, been connected in one way or another with the news- 
papers of Louisville. He is one of the most prolific song writers of his time, 
and is the author of some songs that have proved to be very popular.] 

THE LAST HAIL. 

Mate, gti ready down on deck, 

I'm heading for the shore, 
ril ring the bell, for 1 must land 

This boat forevermore. 

Say, pilot, do you see that light — 

I do — where angels stand.? 
Well, hold her jack-staff hard on that, 

For there I'm going to land. 

That looks like Death that's hailing me, 

So ghastly grim and pale; 
I'll toll the bell—I must go in— 

I never passed a hail. 

Stop her! Let her come in slow — 

There! That will do — no more; 
The lines are fast, and angels await 

To welcome me ashore. 

Say, pilot, I'm going with them. 

Up yonder, through that gate, 
I'll not come back; you ring the bell. 

And back her out — don't wait. 

For I have made my trip of life, 

I've found my landing-place, 
I'll take my soul and anchor that 

Fast to the Throne of Grace. 



KENTUCKY POETS. 469 



MRS. ROSA VERTNER JEFFERY. 

[Mrs. Rosa Vertner Jeffery (nee Griffith) was born in Mississippi, but 
was educated in Lexington, Ky., and here wrote her poems and made her 
fame as a poetess. She has published several volumes of her poems, which 
were popular and well received in their day. She died in Edinburg, Scotland, 
in 1894.] 

THE SUNSET CITY. 

I saw a strange, beautiful city arise 
On an island of light, in the sapphire skies. 
When the sun in his Tyrian drapery dress' d, 
Like a shadow of God, floated down to the west. 
A city of clouds ! in a moment it grew 
On an island of pearl, in an ocean of blue, 
And spirits of twilight enticed me to stray 
Through these palaces reared from the ruins of day. 

In musical murmurs, the soft sunset air. 
Like a golden-winged angel, seemed calling me there, 
And my fancy sped on till it found a rare home, 
A palace of jasper, with emerald dome, 
On a violet strand, by a wide azure flood; 
And where this rich City of Sunset now stood, 
Methought some stray seraph had broken a bar 
From the gold gates of Eden and left them ajar. 

Here were amethyst castles, whose turrets seemed spun 
Of fire drawn out from the heart of the sun; 
With columns of amber, and fountains of light. 
Which threw up vast showers, so changingly bright, 
That Hope might have stolen their exquisite sheen. 
To weave in her girdle of rainbows, I ween. 
And arches of glory grew over me there. 
As these fountains of sunset shot up through the air. 

While I looked from my cloud-pillared palace afar, 
I saw Night let fall one, vast tremulous star. 
On the calm brow of Eden, who, then, in return 
For the gem of her brow, and the dew in her urn 
Seemed draping the darkness and hiding its gloom, 
With the rose-colored curtains which fell from her loom, 
All bordered with purple and violet dyes, 
Floating out like a fringe from the vail of the skies. 

And lo! far away, on the borders of night, 
Rose a chain of cloud-mountains, so wondrously bright, 
They seemed built from those atoms of splendor that start 
Through the depths of the diamond's crystalline heart, 



460 KENTUCKY POETS. 

When light with a magical touch has revealed 

The treasure of beams in its bosom concealed; 

And torrents of azure all graceful and proud, 

Swept noiselessly down from these mountains of cloud. 

But the tide of the darkness came on with its flood, 
And broke o'er the strand where my frail palace stood 
While, far in the distance, the moon seemed to lave 
Like a silver-winged swan in night's ebon wave. 
And then, like Atlantis, that isle of the bless'd. 
Which, in olden times, sunk 'neath the ocean to rest 
(Which now the blue water in mystery shrouds), 
Dropped down in the darkness this city of clouds. 



ELVIRA SYDNOR MILLER. 



[Elvira Sydnor Miller is a Virginian by birth, but has lived so very long 
in Kentucky as to have become a full Kentuckian. She has written for the 
newspapers and magazines quite a number of poems and published in book 
form what she called "Songs of the Heart." The following verses are from 
this collection.] 

A DASH THROUGH THE LINES. 

A royal night for the row before us. 

The moon goes down in a bank of cloud; 
One star to westward trembles o'er us. 

Wrapped like a corpse in its pallid shroud. 

The lamp bums dim in the fisher's dwelling, 

Filled with the Southern refugees; 
Hist ! to the cannon's thunder swelling 

Far away on the tired breeze. 

I can hear the creek's black waters lapping 

The sandy beach and the wooded shores, 
And the dying wind like a night-bird flapping 

Its dusky wings o'er the idle oars. 

Five miles off is the wide, wide river; 

Five miles off the Potomac flood ; 
I can scarcely tell why I pause and shiver, 

Dragging the boat up out of the mud. 

'Tis a risky thing we're about, old fellow, 

Deserters afloat on the river wide, 
Where the gun-boats peer with their eyes so yellow, 

Like panthers loose on the sullen tide. 



KENTUCKY POETS. 461 

Tis the last, last time I shall venture over, 

Risking my neck for the gold so bright ; 
Just one long whiff of the Maryland clover. 

One last dash through the lines to-night. 

Lift up the lantern and hold it steady; 

Call out the women, and children, too; 
The moon is down and the boat is ready. 

But the blockade running is yet to do. 

All aboard ! push off now quickly, 

We must hug the shore till the river shines; 
Look, where those lights burn pale and sickly, 

Over there are the Union lines. 

I can see the river straight before us. 

Muffle the oars, nor cry, nor speak; 
Let us hurry on, through the darkness o*er us, 

Into the river and out of the creek. 

Woman, hush ! there are foes behind us. 

The wolves are seeking their prey abroad; 
Quiet the children, or death will find us — 

For you the water, for me the cord. 

Hist ! 'tis only the black waves creeping 

Under the stem of our trusty boat ; 
The Yankee gunners must all be sleeping. 

To leave us here on the tide afloat. 

God be thanked ! we are half-way over, 

Near at hand are the welcome shores, 
I can smell the blooms of the Maryland clover; 

Row for the land, now bend tO' the oars. 

Haste! make haste, ere the gray dawn whitens 

Over the east, for I dreamt last night 
I walked through a land that no beam e'er lightens, 

With a troop of specters gaunt and white. 

I must reach the shore, but to look once only 

On a face upraised to the skies above, 
'Mid the green woods there, in her cottage lonely. 

Waiting to greet me is she I love. 

She — ^there's a light — hush, hush, no screaming, 

Keep quite still in your places here ; 
'Tis the lamp from a prowling gun-boat gleaming, 

Over the waters far and near. 

Make for the land — strike out — ^they've seen us, 

Zip! 'Twas a cannon's deadly hiss; 
But there's many a watery gap between us. 

They may fire again — so they fire and miss. 



462 KENTUCKY POETS. 

They're bearing down on us sure and steady, 
Zip, zip, zip — how the water boils ! 

Crouch, so the next shot finds us ready — 
A few strong pulls and we 'scape their toils. 

We'll hurry in where tlie bank curves under 
The fringe of trees whose long bows enlace. 

Then, while their cannon boom and thunder. 
We'll seek the woods for a hiding-place. 

A few more strokes and we leave the river. 
The land lies there where the long waves swell; 

God ! how the balls ricochet and shiver, 
Till the air is strong with the powder's smell. 

One stroke more — oh! my God, 'tis over! 

That last shot told ; ah ! they aimed aright. 
Good-bye to the Maryland fields of clover. 

And — ^tell her — I can not — come — ^to-night. 



JAMES H. MULLIGAN. 

[James H. Mulligan, Lawyer, Lexington, Ky., was born in Lexington, Ky., 
November 21, 1844; former State Senator and United States Consul-General 
of the United States to the Kingdom of Samoa. (See extended sketch on 
page 301.] 

IN KENTUCKY. 

The moonlight falls the softest 

In Kentucky; 
The summer days come oftest 

In Kentucky; 
Friendship is the strongest, 
Love's light glows the longest ; 
Yet, wrong is always wrongest 

In Kentucky. 

Life's burdens bear the lightest 

In Kentucky; 
The home fires bum the brightest 

In Kentucky; 
While players are the keenest, 
Cards come out the meanest, 
The pocket empties cleanest 

In Kentucky. 



KENTUCKY POETS. 468 

The sun shines ever brightest 

In Kentucky; 
The breezes whisper lightest 

In Kentucky; 
Plain girls are the fewest, 
Maiden's eyes the bluest, 
Their little hear!s are truest 

In Kentucky. 

Orators are the grandest 

In Kentucky; 
Officials are the blandest 

In Kentucky; 
Boys are all the fliest. 
Danger ever nighest. 
And taxes are the highest 

In Kentucky. 

The bluegrass waves the bluest 

In Kentucky; 
Yet, bluebloods are the fewest (?) 

In Kentucky; 
Moonshine is the clearest. 
By no means the dearest. 
And yet it acts the queerest 

In Kentucky. 

The dove-notes are the saddest 

In Kentucky; 
The streams dance on the gladdest 

In Kentucky; 
Hip pockets are the thickest. 
Pistol hands the slickest, 
The cylinder turns quickest 

In Kentucky. 

The song birds are the sweetest 

In Kentucky; 
The thoroughbreds are fleetest 

In Kentucky; 
Mountains tower proudest, 
Thunders peal the loudest, 
The landscape is the grandest — 
And politics — ^the damnedest 

In Kentucky. 



464 KENTUCKY POET 



COL. THEODORE O'HARA. 

[Colonel Theodore O'Hara, poet, soldier and filibuster, was born in Dan- 
ville, Ky., February 11, 1820. He died June 7, 1867, on a plantation in 
Alabama, where he was first buried. In 1874, the Legislature of Kentucky 
had his remains disinterred and brought to Frankfort, where they were re- 
interred in the State Cemetery with military honors. His remains were 
laid to rest among those of his comrades in arms at the foot of the great 
monument erected to their memory and immortalized by the poem he wrote 
in their honor. O'Hara was distinguished as a soldier in the Mexican War 
and in the Civil War. He was also distinguished in the filibustering expe- 
dition which Lopez led into Ctiba. His fame, however, will rest more endur- 
ingly on the few poems that he wrote. Only two of his poems seem to have 
been preserved, one of which is given below.] 

THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD. 

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat 

The soldier's last tattoo! 
No more on life's parade shall meet 

That brave and fallen few; 
On Fame's eternal camping ground 

Their silent tents are spread, 
And Glory guards, with solemn round, 

The bivouac of the dead. 

No rumor of the foe's advance 

Now swells upon the wind ; 
No troubled thought at midnight haunts 

Of loved ones left behind ; 
No vision of the morrow's strife 

The warrior's dream alarms; 
No braying horn nor screaming fife 

Al dawn shall call to arms. 

Their shivered swords are red with rust. 

Their plumed heads are bowed, 
Their haughty banner, trailed in dust. 

Is now their martial shroud — 
And plenteous funeral tears have washed 

The red stains from each brow, 
And the proud forms in battle gashed, 

Are free from anguish now. 

The neighing troop, the flashing blade, 

The bugle's stirring blast. 
The charge, the dreadful cannonade. 

The din and shout are past — 
Nor war's wild note, nor glory's peal. 

Shall thrill with fierce delight 
Those breasts that never more may feel 

The rapture of the fight. 



KENTUCKY POETS. 466 

Like the fierce Northern hurricane 

That sweeps his great plateau, 
Flushed with the triumph yet to gain, 

Came down the serried foe — 
Who heard the thunder of the fray 

Break o'er the field beneath, 
Knew well the watchword of that day 

Was victory or death. 

Full many a norther's breath has swept 

O'er Augustura's plain, 
And long the pitying sky has wept 

Above its moulder'd slain; 
The raven's scream or eagle's flight. 

Or shepherd's pensive lay 
Alone awakes each sullen height 

That frowned o'er that dread fray. 

Sons of the Dark and Bloody Ground ! 

Ye must not slumber there, 
Where stranger steps and tongues resound 

Along the heedless air; 
Your own proud land's heroic soil 

Should be your fitter grave; 
She claims from War his richest spoil — 

The ashes of her brave. 

Thus, 'neath their parent turf they rest, 

Far from the gory field. 
Borne to a Spartan mother's breast 

On many a bloody shield. 
The sunshine of their native sky 

Smiles sadly on them here. 
And kindred eyes and hearts watch by 

The hero's sepulchre. 

Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead! 

Dear as the blood ye gave ; 
No impious footsteps here shall tread 

The herbage of your grave; 
Nor shall your glory be forgot 

While Fame h'er record keeps. 
Or Honor points the hallowed spot 

Where Valor proudly sleeps. 

Yon marble minstrel's voiceful stone, 

In deathless song shall tell, 
When many a vanished age hath flo'wn, 

The story how ye fell ; 
Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight. 

Nor time's remorseless doom. 
Can dim one ray of holy light 

That gilds your glorious tomb. 



466 KENTUCKY POETS. 



MRS. SALLIE M. B. PIATT. 

[Mrs. Sallie M. B. Piatt is a native of Henry county, Kentucky, where 
she resided until she became the wife of John J. Piatt, a poet like herself. 
In 1857, she sent her few poems to the Louisville Journal and received such 
encouragement from the editor that she began regularly to write verses for 
the newspapers. She has published several volumes of poems and written 
much more which has not yet been published.] 

MY GHOST. 

Yes, Katie, I think you are very sweet. 

Now that the tangles are out of your hair, 
And you sing as well as the birds you meet, 

That are playing like you in the blossoms there. 
But now you are coming to kiss me, you say; 

Well, what is it for.? Shall I tie your shoe. 
Or loop your sleeve in a prettier way ? 

"Do I know about ghosts?" Indeed I do. 

*^Have I seen one?" Yes, last evening, you know 

We were taking a walk that you had to miss, 
(I think you were naughty and cried to go, 

But, surely, you'll stay at home after this!) 
And away in the twilight lonesomely 

("What is the twilight?" It's— getting late!) 
I was thinking of things that were sad to me — 

There, hush! you know nothing about them, Kate. 

Well, we had to go fhrough the rocky lane, 

Close to that bridge where the water roars. 
By a still, red house, where the dark and rain 

Go in when they will at the open doors; 
And the moon that had just waked up look'd through 

The broken old windows and seem'd afraid. 
And the wild bats flew and the thistles grew 

Where once in the roses the children play'd. 

Just across the road by the cherry trees. 

Some fallen white stones had been lying so long. 
Half hid in the grasses, and under these 

There were people dead. I could hear the song 
Of a very sleepy dove, as I pass'd 

The graveyard near, and the cricket that cried ; 
And I look'd (ah, the ghost is coming at last !) 

And something was walking at my side. 

It seem'd to be wrapped in a great dark shawl, 

(For the night was a little cold, you know). 
It would not speak. It was black and tall 

And it walk'd so proudly and very slow. 



KENTUCKY POETS. 467 

Then it mock'd me — everything 1 could do; 

Now it caught at the lightning-flies like me ; 
Now it stopped where the elder-blossoms grew; 

Now it tore the thorns from a gray-bent tree. 

Soon it followed me under the yellow moon, 

Looking back to the graveyard now and then, 
Where the winds were playing the night a tune — 

But, Kate, a ghost doesn't care for men. 
And your papa couldn''t have done it harm ! 

Ah, dark-eyed darling, what is it you see ? 
There, you needn't hide in your dimpled arm — 

It was only my shadow that walk'd with me ! 



GEORGE D. PRENTICE. 

[George D. Prentice was born in Connecticut in 1802, and was a graduate 
of Brown University. He came to Kentucky for the purpose of writing a 
life of Henry Clay, which he wrote and published in 1831, By the time he 
had gotten this book off his hands, he was so well pleased with Kentucky that 
he established the Louisville Journal and continued connected with the press 
until his death, January 22, 1870. He wrote a number of poems which were 
gathered together and published in an octavo volume by John James Piatt 
in 1883. The following is probably the best.] 

THE CLOSING YEAR. 

Tis midnight's holy hour — and silence now 
Is brooding, like a gentle spirit, o'er 
The still and pulseless world. Hark ! on the winds 
The bell's deep notes are swelling. 'Tis the knell 
Of the departed year. 

No funeral train 
Is sweeping past ; yet on the stream and wood, 
With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest, 
Like a pale, spotless shroud ; the air is stirred, 
As by a mourner's sigh ; and on yon cloud. 
That floats so still and placidly through heaven, 
The spirits of the seasons seem to stand — 
Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form, 
And Winter, with his aged locks^-and breathe 
In mournful cadences, that come abroad 
Like the far wind-harp's wild and touching wail, 
A melancholy dirge o'er the dead year. 
Gone from the earth forever. 

'Tis a time 
For memory and for tears. Within the deep. 
Still chambers of the heart, a specter dim, 
Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time, 
Heard from the tomb of ages, points its cold 



468 KENTl CK7 POETS- 

And solemn finger to- the beautiful 

And holy visions that have passed away 

And left no shadow of their loveliness 

On the dead waste of life. That specter lifts 

The colfin-lid of hope, and joy and love, 

And, bending mournfully above the pale, 

Sweet forms that slumber there, scatters dead flowers 

O'er what has passed to nothingness. 

The year 
Has gone, and, with it, many a glorious throng 
Of happy dreams. Its marie is on each brow. 
Its shadow in each heart. In its swift course. 
It waved its scepter o'er the beautiful. 
And they are not. It laid its pallid hand 
Upon the strong man, and the haughty form 
Is fallen, and the flashing eye is dim. 
It trod the hall of revelry, where thronged 
The bright and joyous, and the tearful wail 
Of stricken ones is heard, where erst the song 
And reckless shout resounded. It passed o'er 
The battle-plain, where sword and spear and shield 
Flashed in the light of mid-day — and the strength 
Of serried hosts is shivered, and the grass. 
Green from the soil of carnage, waves above 
The crushed and mouldering skeleton. It came 
And faded like a wreath of mist at eve; 
Yet, ere it melted in the viewless air. 
It heralded its millions to their home 
In the dim land of dreams. 

Remorseless Time ! — 
Fierce spirit of the glass and scythe ! — what power 
Can stay him in his silent course, or melt 
His iron heart to pity ? On, still on. 
He presses, and forever. The proud bird, 
The condor of tlie Andes, that can soar 
Through heaven's unfathomable depths, or brave 
The fury of the northern hurricane 
And bathe his plumage in the thunder's home, 
Fuds his broad wings at nightfall, and sinks down 
To rest upon his mountain-crag — but Time 
Knows not the weight of sleep or weariness, 
And night's deep darkness has no chain to bind 
His rushing pinion. Revolutions sweep 
O'er earth, like troubled visions o'er the breast 
Of dreaming sorrow; cities rise and sink, 
Like bubbles on the water; fiery isles 
Spring, blazing, from the ocean, and go back 
To their mysterious caverns; mountains rear 
To heaven their bald and blackened cliffs, and bov/ 
Their tall heads to the plain ; new empires rise. 
Gathering the strength of hoary centuries. 
And rush down the Alpine avalanche, 



KENTUCKY POETS- 469 

V 

Startling the nations; and the very stars, 
Yon bright and burning blazonry of God, 
Glitter awhile in their eternal depths, 
And, like the Pleiad, loveliest of their train. 
Shoot from their glorious spheres, and pass away 
To darkle in the trackless void ; yet Time, 
Time, the tomb-builder, holds his fierce career, 
Dark, stern, all-pitiless, and pauses not 
Amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path. 
To sit and muse, like other conquerors, 
Upon the fearful ruin he hath wrought. 



HENRY THOMAS STANTON. 

[Henry Thomas Stanton, one of the most voluminous and famous of 
Kentucky poets, was born in 1834, died May 8, 1898, at Frankfort, Ky, 
In 1861, he entered the Confederate army and continued until the close 
of the war in the capacity of captain, adjutant, etc., and surrendered with 
the fank of major in 1865. He published two volumes of his poems in 
which there were many verses that were generally admired. He wrote 
on a great variety of subjects, and it would be vain to attempt a fair rep- 
resentation of hTs style and merits by a single selection. The following 
will possibly come as near as any single selection,] 

THE MONEYLESS MAN. 

Is there no secret place on the face of the earth. 
Where charity dwelleth, where virtue has birth? 
Where bosoms in mercy and kindness will heave. 
When the poor and the wretched shall ask and receive ? 
Is there no place at all where a knock from the poor 
Will bring a kind angel to open the door? 
Ah, search the wild world wherever you can, 
There is no open door for a Moneyless Man ! 

Go look in yon hall where the chandelier's light 
Drives off with its splendor the darkness of night. 
Where the rich-hanging velvet in shadowy fold 
Sweeps gracefully down with its trimmings of gold, 
And the mirrors of silver take up and renew. 
In long lighted vistas, the 'wildering view: 
Go there ! at the banquet, and find, if you can, 
A welcoming smile for a Moneyless Man. 

Go look in yon church of the cloud-reaching spire, 
Which gives to the sun his same look of red fire, 
Where the arches and columns are gorgeous within. 
And the walls seem as pure as a soul without sin ; 
Walk down the long aisles, see the rich and the great 
In the pomp and the pride of their worldly estate ; 
Walk down in your patches, and find, if you can. 
Who opens a pew to a Moneyless Man! 



470 KENTUCKY POETS. 

Go, look in the banks, where Mammon has told 
His hundreds and thousands of silver and g*old; 
Where, safe from the hands of the starving and poor. 
Lies, pile upon pile, of the glittering ore! 
Walk up to their counters — oh, there you may stay 
Till your limbs grow old, till your hairs grow gray, 
And you'll find at the banks not one of the clan 
With money to lend to a Moneyless Man ! 

Go look to yon judge, in his dark-flowing gown. 
With the scales wherein law weigheth equity down, 
Where he frowns on the weak and smiles on the strong. 
And punishes right whilst he justifies wrong; 
Where juries their lips to the Bible have laid, 
To render a verdict they've already made ; 
Go there, in the court-room, and find, if you can. 
Any law for the cause of a Moneyless Man ! 

Then go to your hovel ! no raven has fed 

The wife who has suffered too long for her bread ; 

Kneel down by her pallet, and kiss the death-frost 

From the lips of the angel your poverty lost ; 

Then turn in your agony upward to God, 

And bless, while it smites you, the chastening rod, 

And you'll find, at the end of your life's little span. 

There's a welcome above for a Moneyless Man ! 



MRS. AMELIA WELBY. 

[Mrs. Amelia Welby was born at St. Michaels, Maryland, February 3, 
1819, and died at Louisville, Ky., May 3, 1852. Her first poems were pub- 
lished in the Louisville Journal and were highly praised by George D. 
Prentice, the editor. In 1854, she published an octavo volume, which was so 
well received that other editions soon followed. A fair specimen of her 
poetry will be found in the follo\ving verses.] 

THE RAINBOW. 

I sometimes have thoughts in my loneliest hours, 
That lie on my heart like the dew on the flowers. 
Of a ramble I took one bright afternoon. 
When my heart was as light as a blossom in June; 
The green earth was moist with the late fallen showers, 
The breeze fluttered down and blew open the flowers. 
While a single white cloud to its haven of rest, 
On the white wing of peace, floated off in the west. 

As I threw back my tresses to catch the cool breeze. 
That scattered the raindrops and dimpled the seas, 
Far up the blue sky a fair rainbow unrolled 
Its soft tinted pinions of purple and gold. 



KENTUCKY POETS- 471 

Twas bom in a moment, yet, quick as its birth. 
It had stretched to the uttermost parts of the earth, 
And, fair as an angel, it floated as free, 
With a wing on the earth and a wing on the sea. 

How calm was the ocean ! How gentle its swell ! 
Like a woman's soft bosom it rose and it fell ; 
While its light sparkling waves, stealing laughingly o'er. 
When they saw the fair rainbow, knelt down on the shore. 
No sweet hymn ascended, no murmur of prayer, 
Yet I felt that the spirit of worship was there. 
And bent my young head, in devotion and love, 
'Neath the form of an angel that floated above. 

How wide was the sweep of its beautiful wings! 
How boundless its circle! how radiant its rings! 
If I looked on the sky, it was suspended in air; 
If I looked on the ocean, the rainbow was there; 
Thus forming a girdle, as brilliant and whole 
As the thoughts of the rainbow that circled my soul. 
Like the wing of the Diety, calmly unfurled. 
It bent from the cloud and encircled the world. 

There are moments, I think, when the spirit receives 
Whole volumes of thought on its unwritten leaves. 
When the folds of the heart in a moment unclose 
Like the innermost leaves from the heart of a rose. 
And thus, when the rainbow had passed from the sky. 
The thoughts it awoke were too deep to pass by; 
It left my full soul, like the wing of a dove, 
All fluttering with pleasure and fluttering with love. 

I know that each moment of rapture or pain 
But shortens the link in life's mystical chain ; 
I know that my form, like the bow from the wave. 
Must pass from the earth and lie cold in the grave; 
Yet, oh ! when death's shadows my bosom encloud, 
When I shrink at the thought of the coffin and shroud, 
May Hope, like the rainbow, my spirit enfold 
In her beautiful pinions of purple and gold. 



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